WPML allows you to display content written in the site’s default language when viewing pages in other languages.
Sometimes, you may not have translations for all of the content you wish to display on your site. This may be because you don’t have any translations yet, or that it may not make budgetary sense to translate a specific page or post type.
With WPML, there are three ways you can use untranslated content in your secondary languages:
Learning about the different ways to use untranslated content might be confusing at first. Please see the following chart for an overview, and keep reading for more details about each option.
Displays default language content when there is no translation
Duplicates default language content to secondary languages and keeps them synced
Copies default language content to secondary languages once
When to use
You want all of a particular post type or taxonomy to show, even if not all of the posts have translations
You don’t plan to translate your content and need secondary language content to stay synced with the default language
You plan to translate your content and need temporary content for a post or page (but not the whole post type)
Where to enable this option
WPML → Settings
Language section of the post or page editor, or in Translation Management if you want to duplicate multiple pages at once
Language section of the post or page editor
What this applies to
Entire post types and taxonomies
Individual posts or pages that are translatable
Individual posts or pages
Translation Dependencies
Independent of original content
Synced to original content
Independent of original content
Limitations
When this is enabled for any post type, all posts belonging to those post types will be associated with the default language taxonomies.
Taxonomy terms are not duplicated.
You can only copy content if there is no translation already in place.This does not copy custom fields.
Using the Default Language as a Fallback for Untranslated Content
In your WPML settings, you have the option to set entire post types and even taxonomies to display translations, if available, or display default language content if translations don’t exist.
Setting post types to use a translation if available or fallback to original language
This can be useful if you want all of a particular post type or taxonomy to show, even if not all of the posts have translations yet. This makes it a great option for listing sites, directory sites, membership sites, and e-commerce sites.
What about SEO?
The best part about using this translation mode is that it will have no negative SEO implications for your site.
WPML tells Google about the default content, so Google can ignore all the same content on secondary language pages. If you eventually translate a post or a page, Google will see that as new content and not a duplicate.
How to Display Untranslated Post Types as a Fallback
To display untranslated content for all posts belonging to specific post types:
Go to the WPML → Settings page.
Scroll down to the Post Types Translation section and select the second option, Translatable – use translation if available or fallback to default language, for all post types you need.
Please keep in mind that this translation option does not create posts in the second language. Instead, it displays the default language content which cannot be associated with translated taxonomies.
How to Display Untranslated Taxonomy Values as a Fallback
You can also enable this feature for taxonomies. In this case, if the taxonomies featured on a page don’t have translations yet, WPML displays the ones from the default language.
To display default language taxonomy values for specific taxonomies:
Go to the WPML → Settings page.
Scroll down to the Custom taxonomies section and select the second option, Translatable – use translation if available or fallback to default language, for all post types you need.
Setting taxonomies to display the default language content as a fallback if translations don’t exist
If you have the Translatable – use translation if available or fallback to default language setting enabled for any post type, all posts belonging to those post types will be associated with the default language taxonomies. This is because this translation option doesn’t create any posts in the second language, so if you translate the taxonomies there will be no posts associated with them.
For example, in WooCommerce, if you have the Translatable – use translation if available or fallback to default language setting enabled, you won’t see any items on the archive page for your taxonomies in the secondary language. You must change settings for your products to Duplicate. After this, you can use translated taxonomies on your product pages.
Duplicating Content
Sometimes you only need to display the original content for specific posts and not their whole post type. In these cases, you can choose to Duplicate the content. This action connects the default content to the secondary language content, creating a duplicated version in the secondary language. Whenever the original content is updated, the duplicated version will automatically update.
This is useful when:
You do not plan to translate your content and want to display your default content for all languages.
You would like the secondary content to stay synced with the default language.
Editing the duplicated version is possible, but any changes will be overwritten when you update the default content.
Please note that it is always possible to convert the duplicated version back to a translation, and the other way around. In other words, content duplication is reversible and you can change it at any time. For example, if you translate (or send for translation) content that was duplicated, it will stop being a duplicate.
By default, taxonomy terms are not duplicated along with pages. This is because on the WPML → Settings page, Copy taxonomy to translations is selected as a default. With this setting, if taxonomy translations exist, WPML adds them to the duplicates. Otherwise, no taxonomy terms are added.
How to Duplicate Posts and Pages Using the Page Editor
Please note that post duplication is only available for post types that use the translation setting Translatable – only show translated items.
When you edit any content (a post, page, or custom post), you will see a set of checkboxes in the Language section of the editor. Select the languages you want to duplicate and click on the Duplicate button that appears.
Duplicating content when editing a post
Please note that if the post type translation is set to Translatable – use translation if available or fallback to default language, the Duplicate option is not available. However, you can still use the Translation Dashboard page to duplicate multiple pages as explained in the next section.
How to Duplicate Pages and Posts in Bulk
If you want to duplicate multiple pages at once, you can do so by going to WPML → Translation Management. Select the posts and pages and under Translation options, choose Duplicate content.
Duplicating multiple pages at once
How to Convert a Translation Into a Duplicate
If you would like to overwrite an existing translation with a duplicate of the default content:
Choose the secondary language from the language switcher in the WordPress admin view.
Click the post or page you would like to convert into a duplicate.
In the Language section of the editor, click the Overwrite with [default language] content button.
Converting a translation to a duplicate
To convert a duplicate to a translation, follow the same steps outlined above, but click the Translate independently button. This stops the post from automatically syncing with the default language content.
Converting a duplicate into a translation
Copying Content
Copying content does the same thing as duplicating content with one major exception: the default content is not synced with the copied translation. This is useful if, for example, you need temporary content for a post or page (but not the whole post type) while you wait for the content to be translated.
WPML treats a copied page the same as if it was a translation. You can edit the translation independently, and changing the default content will not overwrite it.
Copying content copies the title, excerpt, and content from the default language. It does not copy custom fields.
How to Copy Content
You can only copy content if there is no translation already in place.
To copy content:
Edit the page in the default language.
Use the language switcher to switch to the secondary language.
You’ll see a blank page. In the Language section of the editor, click the Copy content from [default language] button.
Copying default language content to a secondary language page
If you’re using the Gutenberg Block Editor and don’t see the language switcher at the top of the screen, click the 3-dot menu at the top right corner and un-check Fullscreen Mode.
Switching to the Fallback Setting if Your Site is Using Content Duplication
The ability to display untranslated content on pages in secondary languages was introduced with WPML 3.9 version. In the preceding versions, you had to use content duplication.
