---
title: "translate attribute for untranslatable content"
category: i18n
status: optional
url: https://webspecification.com/spec/i18n/translate-attribute/
updated: "2026-06-18T00:00:00.000Z"
sources:
- title: "HTML Standard — The translate attribute"
url: "https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/dom.html#the-translate-attribute"
publisher: "WHATWG"
- title: "W3C i18n — Using the HTML translate attribute"
url: "https://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-translate-flag"
publisher: "W3C"
- title: "MDN — The translate global attribute"
url: "https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/Global_attributes/translate"
publisher: "MDN"
source_repo: undefined
licence: CC-BY-4.0
---
# translate attribute for untranslatable content
> The translate attribute marks content that automatic translation systems must leave alone — brand names, code, and identifiers. Use translate="no" so Google Translate and the browser's built-in translation don't mangle terms that have no localised form.
## What it is
`translate` is a global HTML attribute that tells automatic translation systems whether an element's text — and its translatable attribute values, like `alt` and `title` — should be translated when the page is localised. It takes two values: `yes` (the empty string also means yes) and `no`.
```html
```
The value inherits: set `translate="no"` on an element and every descendant is excluded too, until a child sets `translate="yes"` again. The default for the document is "yes" — everything is translatable unless you say otherwise.
This is the opposite concern to [the `lang` attribute](/spec/i18n/lang-attribute/). `lang` declares *what language content is in* so assistive tech and browsers handle it correctly; `translate` declares *what must not be machine-translated at all*. The two are complementary, not interchangeable.
## Why it matters
Browsers do not act on `translate` for rendering, but it is respected by the systems that actually translate pages: Google Translate, the browser's built-in page translation (Chrome, Edge, Safari, Firefox), and many tools used by human translators. Without it, those systems happily translate things that should never change:
- **Brand and product names** become nonsense in the target language.
- **Code, commands, and file paths** get "translated" and stop working when copied.
- **Proper nouns and identifiers** — usernames, SKUs, legal entity names — get altered.
Marking this content is the author's job; the translation system has no other way to know a string is a brand name rather than an ordinary noun.
## How to implement
Add `translate="no"` to the smallest element that wraps the untranslatable text.
```html
Install it with npm install astro.
Your order #A-4815 has shipped.
Written by Joost de Valk.
```
Good candidates: brand names, code samples, keyboard shortcuts, email addresses, and any string a reader will copy verbatim. The attribute is [Baseline](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/Global_attributes/translate) widely available, so no fallback is needed.
## Common mistakes
- **Putting `translate="no"` on `` or ``.** That opts the whole page out of translation — exactly what most multilingual readers do not want. Mark spans, not pages.
- **Confusing it with `lang`.** `lang="en"` does not stop translation, and `translate="no"` does not declare a language. Untranslatable foreign-language terms often want both.
- **Forgetting attributes are covered too.** `translate="no"` on an `` also protects its `alt` and `title` — useful for a logo whose alt text is the brand name.