Change language in Laravel 5

Stefan Bogdanescu

Founder & Senior Architect · 2026-06-29

Laravel Company
Title: Effortlessly Switch Between Languages in Laravel 5 Using Language Files Introduction: In today's globalized world, it's crucial to offer your web applications in multiple languages to cater to a diverse audience. Laravel 5 provides an effective solution for managing translation strings. This blog post aims to provide you with knowledge on how to make use of language files, along with code examples and best practices to enable multilingual support in your Laravel application. Body: 1. **Introduction to Laravel's Localization System** Laravel offers a robust localization system that allows you to manage multiple languages in your application. It provides a built-in mechanism for storing and retrieving translation strings from language files. By using these features, you can seamlessly translate your app without much hassle. 2. **Creating Language Files** First, create a new directory within your Laravel application called 'lang'. Within this folder, define sub-folders for each supported language. For example: - english - spanish - french Now, create a new blank file named 'default.php', which will serve as the default translation file for your app. All other language files will extend this default file for their respective languages. 3. **Adding Translation Strings** Within each language folder, define all the required keys and values in dedicated PHP arrays. For instance: For English: lang/english/default.php ```php return [ 'name' => 'John', 'age' => '25 years old' ]; ``` For Spanish, lang/spanish/default.php ```php return [ 'name' => 'Juan', 'age' => '25 años' ]; ``` 4. **Retrieving Translations** You can easily access and use the translated strings within your views or controllers using Laravel's translation helper method, `trans()`. For example: In LoginController.php ```php public function login() { $username = \Auth::user()->name; return view('login', ['username' => $username]); } ``` In login.blade.php ```php

Welcome, {{ $username }}

``` 5. **Additional Resources and Improvements** For advanced localization requirements, you can also define customized translation files for specific layouts or pages. You may want to consider creating additional language files in the lang folder based on these needs. Furthermore, you can take advantage of Laravel's internationalization features, such as defining locale-specific URLs and content negotiation. Conclusion: Laravel 5 offers a practical solution for incorporating multilingual support into your application through its localization system and language files. By following the steps mentioned in this blog post, you can easily translate your app's text content without compromising on user experience or functionality. For more information on internationalization in Laravel, refer to our resources at https://laravelcompany.com/blog/.