Help:Contributing/languages
The knowledge base is multilingual on a best-effort basis: en, fr, eo. Multilingualism works in two places: inside entities — labels, descriptions and aliases — and on wiki pages, through the Translate extension. Contribution is never blocked on translation: write in the language you know; translators cover the others.
Entities and properties
Items and properties are single entities: there is exactly one page per entity (for example Special:EntityPage/Q1), shown in the reader's interface language. The multilingual content lives inside the entity as per-language values.
| Field | What it is | Example (property P1)
|
|---|---|---|
| Label | The short, human-readable name of the entity | instance of |
| Description | A one-line clarification that disambiguates the entity | that class of which this subject is a particular example and member |
| Aliases | Alternative names or spellings that also resolve to the entity | example of |
House rules:
- A label and a description must be unique together per language: no two entities may share the same label + description pair in the same language.
- Do not copy Wikidata property numbers — properties are mirrored and mapped via equivalence statements instead (see the ontology alignment decision).
- Prefer the local, human-written value over a machine translation; if you use a machine translation, review it against the original before saving.
Workflow
To add or edit terms in another language:
- Open the entity (for example Special:EntityPage/P1) and enter edit mode.
- Open the "In more languages" section at the top of the page.
- Choose the language, type the value, save.
Every field takes a language code (for example en, fr, eo) and the value for that language.
Classic wiki pages
Wiki pages are translated with the Translate extension, which separates two roles:
- The translation administrator marks pages for translation and manages their units.
- The translator translates units through the translation interface.
Workflow per role
- Translation admin — marking and managing pages
- Translator — translating units
See also
- Help:Contributing — contributing to this wiki
- Help:Contributing/code — code blocks and syntax highlighting
- Translate extension help (official)