How Google knows what language to show in search results

When you search on Google, you can get results in a language different from the one you used. This happens because many people speak more than one language. Here’s how it works:

Google figures out the language of the results automatically.
You can pick a language if you want.

How Google knows what language to use

Many people use different languages when they search on Google. To help them, Google considers a few factors to guess the best language for the results.

The language you used to search

The language you type your search in is important. It tells Google if you want results in a different language than the one set up in your language settings.

For example, if someone in France uses French, they can still search and get results in:

Arabic
English
Other languages

If the content is helpful

Google knows if content in another language is helpful, even if you searched in a different language. Also, there might not be enough information in the language you searched in.

The language you use on Google

You can pick the language you want to get for buttons and other words in Google search. This helps Google know what language to show you for search results. However, it doesn’t only show results in that language.

What language your computer or phone uses

Your computer or phone might tell Google what languages you like to use. If they do, it can help Google pick a language for your search results. However, it doesn’t only show results in that language.

Where you are

Google uses your location to help figure out what language to use for search results. This is helpful when words are the same in different languages, like "taxi." Google finds your location automatically , but you can change it if you want .

What website owners say

If someone makes a website in different languages, they can tell Google which language to show for which people .

Pick a language for your search results

You can pick a language for your search results in two ways:

Results language filter:This is a filter that appears at the top of your search results. It lets you pick a language or languages for the results. Learn how to use Results Language Filters .
Advanced search language filter:You can pick a language on the Advanced Search page .

Language filters mostly work for web results. Some things, like Knowledge Graph displays and top stories , can’t change. Also, they might not work if Google can’t tell what language a page is in. This can happen if:

A page has more than one language.
The content doesn’t tell Google which language is which.
- Learn how to help Google understand multilingual sites .

Use Results Language Filter for Google Search

To filter Google search results in different languages, you can use the Results Language Filter.

Learn how the Results Language Filter works

By default, Google Search automatically determines what appears to be the most helpful language or languages to display results in.

There are times when you want to filter results to a particular language or languages.

To filter web search results to one or more preferred languages, you can use the Results Language Filter.

Tip:If the only selected language is English, the Results Language Filter won’t display.

Language filters don’t work for some search features or if the language can’t be detected.
Learn how Google determines the language of search results .

Get started with the Results Language Filter

In Google Search, click Tools Any language.
Select your preferred language filter.

Change your Results Language Filter

Important:You can choose to filter results for more than one language, but the filter won’t work for them individually. For example, if you set the filter to French, Indonesian, and Arabic, it filters results to show all of those languages. It won’t filter to these languages individually.

On your computer, open Search settings .
Click Results Language Filter.
Select your preferred languages.
At the bottom, click Confirm.

Related resources

Change your display language on Google

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