### [How to Translate WordPress Contact Forms (Step by Step)](https://wpforms.com/how-to-translate-your-wordpress-contact-forms-step-by-step/)

**Published:** October 9, 2023
**Author:** Osama Tahir

**Excerpt:** Would you like to translate your contact form so that people from all over the world can easily fill it out? Taking your business online means accessing a global audience. 

In order to connect with them, it helps to display your forms in multiple languages. 

In this post, we'll share tips on how to translate contact forms built with WPForms.

**Content:**

Do you want to translate your WordPress contact forms into another language?

Translations are really important if your website serves people from different regions of the world where English may not be their first language.

The good news is that handling translations is really easy in WordPress. Remember, you’re not just translating words; you’re also opening doors to a wider audience. 🌐

In this article, we’ll show you how to translate your WordPress contact forms.

[Create Your WordPress Form Now](https://wpforms.com/pricing/)

## How to Translate Your WordPress Contact Forms

For this tutorial, we’ll assume that you already have [WPForms ](https://wpforms.com/docs/install-wpforms-plugin/)installed. Translations are handled slightly differently by every contact form plugin, so the steps below may not be accurate for other forms plugins.

### Step 1: Create a Simple Contact Form

With WPForms installed and activated on your site, you can go ahead and start creating a form to translate.

Open your WordPress admin menu and go to **WPForms » Add New**.

![Add new form](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/add-new-form-updated.png)Once you’ve done that, you’ll be taken to the form setup screen. Start by giving a title to your form.

![Naming your form](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/name-your-form.png)After that, scroll down to the template section and select one from over [2,100+ WordPress form templates](https://wpforms.com/templates/). We’ll select the Simple Contact Form template for the purposes of this tutorial.

![Use Contact Form Template](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/use-contact-form-template.png)As soon as you press **Use Template**, the form template will start loading inside the form builder.

![Contact form loaded](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/contact-form-loaded-.png)You can add additional fields to your contact form by dragging them from the left hand panel to the right hand panel.

Make sure to press the **Save** button to save the changes you’ve made to your form up until this point.

### Step 2: Translate Your Form Fields

Translating your contact form’s fields is really easy to do in WPForms, and there are a few ways to do this.

#### Automatic Translation

If you’re following this method of translation, you should first publish your form using one of the [embedding options offered by WPForms](https://wpforms.com/how-to-embed-a-form-on-your-website/). Then follow the instructions below.

The fastest way to translate your form fields into any language is to use the [Universally](https://universally.com/ "Universally") plugin.

Universally is a AI-powered translation plugin that can instantly translate content on your site into more than 110 languages simply by clicking a language switcher button.

It works with all kinds of content on a WordPress site, including forms built with WPForms. Plus, you can get started with Universally for free.

The free plan translates up to 2,000 words into one language on a single site, and you can upgrade to a paid plan later if you need more languages or a more translated words.

To get started, head over to the [Universally website](https://universally.com/ "Universally") and click the ‘Get Started for Free’ button to sign up for an account.

![Click the Get Started for Free button on the Universally website](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/universally-get-started-1024x593.png)After signing up, you’ll land in your Universally dashboard, where you can set up your first translation project.

From your dashboard, find and click the ‘Add Project’ button. This opens a short form where you’ll set up your site in Universally.

![Create a new project in Universally](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/click-add-project-universally-1024x429.png)Start by entering your site’s domain. Then, give your project a name so you can easily recognize it later.

Then select the source language your content is written in and choose WordPress as your [platform](https://wpforms.com/best-blogging-platform/ "11 Best Blogging Platforms in 2026 (For All Budgets)"). Once everything is filled in, click ‘Next.’

![Enter Universally project details](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/enter-project-details-1024x749.png)After your project is created, you’ll land on a setup screen where you can connect everything to WordPress in just a few clicks.

Start by clicking the ‘Install Plugin’ button. A new window will open automatically, where you simply click ‘Install’ and then ‘Activate’ to add the Universally plugin to your WordPress site.

![Install the Universally plugin](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/universally-setup-1024x487.png)Next, click the ‘Activate’ button to connect your API key. Another window will open and link your site to Universally for you.

Just click the ‘Confirm and connect’ button, and the window will close on its own.

![Connect your site with the Universally API key](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/confirm-connect-universally-1024x544.png)With your site connected, you can now click the ‘Add Languages’ button to choose what you’d like to translate your form into.

![Click Add Languages in Universally](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/click-add-languages-1024x422.png)This will take you to a new page and bring up a dropdown list of more than 110 languages, so go ahead and pick the one you want.

For this tutorial, we’ll select Spanish.

You can add as many languages as your plan allows, then click ‘Add Language’ to store your choices.

![Select the language you want to translate your forms into](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/choose-language-1024x744.png)Universally will start translating your site right away, including the contact form you built with WPForms.

Now, go ahead and visit the page where you published your form. Universally automatically adds a language switcher to the bottom corner of your site, so simply click it and choose Spanish.

![Contact form in Espanol](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/translatedwpforms-1024x559.png)As you can see, Universally will translate your form field label, [button text](https://wpforms.com/wpforms-submit-button-best-practices/ "The WPForms Submit Button: Best Practices for Boosting Clicks"), and sublabels in your desired language.

However, no translation plugin can automatically translate validations and error messages in WPForms.

![Validations not translated](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/error-messages-1024x428.png)So you’ll need to translate validation messages manually as [shown in step 3](#validation-messages).

Also, please bear in mind that Universally’s free plan is limited to 2,000 translated words. If you need to translate more words than that, you’ll need to purchase a paid plan, which starts at $7.50 per month.

If this isn’t the best option for you, we’ll show you how to translate your contact forms free of cost manually.

#### Manual Form Translations

It’s very easy to translate your forms manually in WPForms. To change the labels for any form field, all you have to do is click on the form field in the form editor and replace the default label with the language you want to translate your form into.

![Field label in Spanish](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/field-label-in-spanish.png)If you need help with translating, you can use online translation tools like [Google Translate](https://translate.google.com/) to assist you.

After translating your form labels, you need to do something about the Name sublabels (the labels under the form fields like “First” and “Last”). While you can’t edit Name sublabels in WPForms, there is a way around this.

Click on a field you want to change the sublabel of to access its Field Options on the left-hand pane. Then click on the **Advanced** tab.

![Advanced tab](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/advanced-tab.png)While we can’t translate sublabels, we can still use custom placeholders instead of sublabels.

Insert your translations in the placeholder fields.

![Translated placeholders](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/translated-placeholders.png)Then scroll down to the bottom and click on the **Hide Sublabels** toggle button.

![Hide sublabels](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/hide-sublabels.png)You should also translate the Submit button text and the form name (if you originally used an English name for your form).

To do that, go to **Settings » General** from within the form builder.

![General form settings in WPForms](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Form-Settings-General.png)On the right-hand pane, simply enter your translation inside the **Form Name** text box.

![Changing form name](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/form-name-change.png)Scroll down to the bottom and repeat the same steps for the **Submit Button Text** and **Submit Button Processing** text boxes.

![Submit text translation](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/submit-text-translation.png)Excellent! You’ve now translated all the labels and text inside your form. Go ahead and press **Save** and move on to the next step.

### Step 3: Translate Your Form’s Validation Messages

A validation message is a text that appears when a required form field is left empty, or someone inputs incorrect data into a form field.

![Validation message](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/validations-not-translated-e1694013843552.png)To translate your contact form’s validation messages, exit your form builder and navigate to **WPForms » Settings** from your WordPress dashboard. Then click on the **Validation** tab.

![Validation settings](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/validation-settings.png)From there, all you need to do is change the current validation messages (in English by default) to the language you’re translating your contact forms into.

![Validations translated](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/validation-translated.png)**Note:** Make sure not to translate the text enclosed in curly brackets like {suggestion}. Changing this placeholder text can display gibberish in your error messages.

When you’re done, press **Save Settings**.

![Save settings](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/save-settings.png)Now, if you go and check your form by entering the wrong inputs or skipping a required field, you’ll see the translated validation messages appear.

![Translated validation messages](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/translated-validation-messages-1.png)And there you have it! You now know how to translate your WordPress contact forms.

While the above steps should be sufficient for most sites, there are certain special cases where you may need to use some PHP code to translate certain special fields.

We’ll show some of these in the next section so you can simply copy and paste code snippets even if you’ve never used any code before.

### Bonus: Advanced Translation Options

Before we go into the details of different special scenarios, let us first explain how you can insert custom code snippets in your WordPress site in the easiest way possible.

To do this, you’ll need a plugin called [WPCode](https://wordpress.org/plugins/insert-headers-and-footers/). Install this plugin on your site.

![WPCode plugin](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/WPCode-Plugin.png)After installing the plugin, hover your cursor over Code Snippets in your WP admin sidebar and click on **Add Snippet**.

![Add snippet](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/code-snippets-add-snippet.jpg)Then, press the **Use Snippet** button under Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet)

![Add your custom code snippet](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Add-your-custom-code-snippet.png)This will open the code editor window.

![WPCode editor](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/wpcode-editor.png)At the top, you can give a name to your snippet to help you reference it later. In the middle, you have the code editor, where you can write your own code or copy-paste it from another source.

At the top right, you can select your code type depending on the nature of your code. For these scenarios, we’ll be using PHP codes, so select PHP Snippet from the dropdown.

![Code type](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/code-type.png)Excellent. Now, we’ll go through a few common scenarios where you may need to use PHP code in order to translate certain parts of your form.

#### Translating Validation Messages into Multiple Languages

Let’s consider a website that has forms in different languages on the same site. While you can easily change the labels manually or with the Universally plugin as we’ve shown above, the validation messages can’t be changed for individual forms with these methods.

To change validation messages based on the specific language selected by a user on your site, you’ll need to insert a PHP code snippet.

We’ve created a [code snippet](https://wpforms.com/developers/change-validation-messages-for-wpml/) that translates your form validation messages into Spanish or French based on the language selected by the user.

Follow the steps we’ve shown above to add a new snippet using WPCode, and then insert the following snippet inside the code editor:

![PHP code for validation translations](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/php-code-for-validation-translations.png)Select the code insertion method (auto-insert, run everywhere).

![Auto Insert code](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/auto-insert-run-everywhere.png)Then, scroll back to the top and press the toggle button to set your code snippet to **Active.** Click on the **Save Snippet** button.

![Save code](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/save-code.png)Congratulations! Your forms will now display validation messages in the selected language.

If you’d like to add translations for other languages, you’ll need the ICL language code for that language (this is ‘es’ for Spanish and ‘fr’ for French). Simply add a line of code starting with:

`case '[insert your language code]':`

Then, use the same blocks of code as appear in our example code above, right after the case line.

Add the translations for each validation message to the right of the equal sign inside square brackets as below (the specific validation message type is indicated by the double forward slashes):

`//valid number`$strings[ 'val_number' ] = '[Enter your translation]'``

And repeat for each line of code.

We’ve tested this code for [WPML](https://wpforms.com/refer/wpml/ "WPML") and [Polylang](https://wordpress.org/plugins/polylang/) plugins. Compatibility with other language translation plugins isn’t guaranteed.

#### Translating Email Confirm Field Sublabels

If you’re using the Email Confirm field, you may want to translate the sublabel into another language.

![click to enable the email confirmation so that the sublabels will aappear](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/wpforms-enable-email-confirmtaion.jpg)As shown in the previous example, you can do this with some custom PHP code inserted using WPCode.

Here’s the code you’ll need:

The translated text for the sublabels needs to be inserted on the right-hand side of the equal signs in the $properties functions.

For example, here’s how you’ll need to modify the above code for Spanish sublabels for the email confirmation fields:

`$properties[ 'inputs' ][ 'primary' ][ 'sublabel' ][ 'value' ] = __( 'Introduce tu correo electrónico', 'plugin-domain' );`$properties[ 'inputs' ][ 'secondary' ][ 'sublabel' ][ 'value' ] = __( 'Para confirmar, vuelva a ingresar su dirección de correo electrónico aquí', 'plugin-domain' );``

The code above will change the validation message for the email confirmation field globally on your site’s forms. However, it’s also possible to change it for individual forms only by modifying the above code slightly.

```
/**
 * Customize email field properties.
 *
 * @link https://wpforms.com/developers/how-to-change-sublabels-for-the-email-field/
 */

function wpf_dev_email_field_properties( $properties, $field, $form_data ) {

    // Only process this snippet on the form ID 123
    if ( absint( $form_data[ 'id' ] ) !== 123 ) {

        return $properties;
    } 

    // Change sublabel values
    $properties[ 'inputs' ][ 'primary' ][ 'sublabel' ][ 'value' ] = __( 'Enter Your Email', 'plugin-domain' );
    $properties[ 'inputs' ][ 'secondary' ][ 'sublabel' ][ 'value' ] = __( 'To confirm, re-enter your email address here', 'plugin-domain' );

    return $properties;

}

add_filter( 'wpforms_field_properties_email' , 'wpf_dev_email_field_properties', 10, 3 );
```

In the line of code `if ( absint( $form_data[ 'id' ] ) !== 123 )`, simply replace “123” with the actual form ID of the form you’re interested in.

You can locate the form ID by going to **WPForms » All Forms** and looking at the ID in the shortcode for your desired form.

![How to locate a forms ID](https://wpforms.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/new-find-form-id-number.jpg)#### Other Translation Options

If you’d like to translate some other specific fields and validations associated with only certain kinds of forms, you can check the following dev docs:

- [Translating validation messages for User Registration addon](https://wpforms.com/developers/change-validation-messages-for-user-registration-addon/)
- [How to translate the File Upload field](https://wpforms.com/docs/how-to-translate-wpforms-into-a-different-language/)

### Next, Create Accordion Forms

An accordion design is a fantastic way to make a long form easier to fill with collapsible sections. Our detailed guide on [creating accordion forms](https://wpforms.com/how-to-design-an-accordion-form-in-wordpress/) shows you all the steps for creating an accordion form in WordPress.

[Create Your WordPress Form Now](https://wpforms.com/pricing/)

Ready to build your form? Get started today with the easiest WordPress form builder plugin. [WPForms Pro](https://wpforms.com/pricing) includes lots of free templates and offers a 14-day money-back guarantee.

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**Categories:** WordPress Tutorials

**Tags:** contact form, custom form fields, form conversion rate, translation

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