---
author: "Rick Cogley"
date: 2015-06-07
linktitle: Multilingual Site
menu:
main:
parent: tutorials
prev: /tutorials/migrate-from-jekyll
title: Create a Multilingual Site
weight: 10
---
## Introduction
Hugo allows you to create a multilingual site from its built-in tools. This tutorial will show one way to do it, and assumes:
* You already know the basics about creating a Hugo site
* You have a separate domain name for each language
* You'll use `/data` files for some translation strings
* You'll use single, combined `layout` and `static` folders
* You'll use a subfolder for each language under `content` and `public`
## Site Configs
Create your site configs in the root of your repository, for example for an English and Japanese site.
**English Config `config_en.toml`**:
~~~toml
baseurl = "http://acme.com/"
title = "Acme Inc."
contentdir = "content/en"
publishdir = "public/en"
...
[params]
locale = "en-US"
~~~
**Japanese Config `config_ja.toml`**:
~~~toml
baseurl = "http://acme.jp/"
title = "有限会社アクミー"
contentdir = "content/ja"
publishdir = "public/ja"
...
[params]
locale = "ja-JP"
~~~
If you had more domains and languages, you would just create more config files. The standard `config.toml` is what Hugo will run as a default, but since we're creating language-specific ones, you'll need to specify each config file when running `hugo server` or just `hugo` before deploying.
## Prep Translation Strings in `/data`
Create `.yaml` (or `.json` or `.toml`) files for each language, under `/data/translations`.
**English Strings `en-US.yaml`**:
~~~yaml
topslogan: Acme Inc.
topsubslogan: You'll love us
...
~~~
**Japanese Strings `ja-JP.yaml`**:
~~~yaml
topslogan: 有限会社アクミー
topsubslogan: キット勝つぞ
...
~~~
In some cases, where there is more complex formatting within the strings you want to show, it might be better to employ some conditional logic in your template, to display a block of html per language.
## Reference Strings in templates
Now you can reference the strings in your templates. One way is to do it like in this `layouts/index.html`, leveraging the fact that you have the locale set:
~~~html
...
{{ if eq .Site.Params.locale "en-US" }}{{ if .IsHome }}Welcome to {{ end }}{{ end }}{{ .Title }}{{ if eq .Site.Params.locale "ja-JP" }}{{ if .IsHome }}へようこそ{{ end }}{{ end }}{{ if ne .Title .Site.Title }} : {{ .Site.Title }}{{ end }}
...
~~~
The above shows both techniques, using an `if eq` and `else if eq` to check the locale, and using `index` to pull strings from the data file that matches the locale set in the site's config file.
## Create Multilingual Content
Now you can create markdown content in your languages, in the `content/en` and `content/ja` folders. The frontmatter stays the same on the key side, but the values would be set in each of the languages.
## Run Hugo Server or Deploy Commands
Once you have things set up, you can run `hugo server` or `hugo` before deploying. You can create scripts to do it, or as shell functions. Here are sample basic `zsh` functions:
**Live Reload with `hugo server`**:
~~~shell
function hugoserver-com {
cd /Users/me/dev/mainsite
hugo server --buildDrafts --watch --verbose --source="/Users/me/dev/mainsite" --config="/Users/me/dev/mainsite/config_en.toml" --port=1377
}
function hugoserver-jp {
cd /Users/me/dev/mainsite
hugo server --buildDrafts --watch --verbose --source="/Users/me/dev/mainsite" --config="/Users/me/dev/mainsite/config_ja.toml" --port=1399
}
~~~
**Deploy with `hugo` and `rsync`**:
~~~shell
function hugodeploy-acmecom {
rm -rf /tmp/acme.com
hugo --config="/Users/me/dev/mainsite/config_en.toml" -s /Users/me/dev/mainsite/ -d /tmp/acme.com
rsync -avze "ssh -p 22" --delete /tmp/acme.com/ me@mywebhost.com:/home/me/webapps/acme_com_site
}
function hugodeploy-acmejp {
rm -rf /tmp/acme.jp
hugo --config="/Users/me/dev/mainsite/config_ja.toml" -s /Users/me/dev/mainsite/ -d /tmp/acme.jp
rsync -avze "ssh -p 22" --delete /tmp/acme.jp/ me@mywebhost.com:/home/me/webapps/acme_jp_site
}
~~~
Adjust to fit your situation, setting dns, your webserver config, and other settings as appropriate.