translate-to-language

name	translate-to-language
description	Use when translating UI strings, i18n values, or short localized content into a specific target language while preserving placeholders, formatting, capitalization, and tone.

Translate to Language

Translate text into a specified target language while preserving placeholders, formatting, and tone.

Inputs

• source_text: The source text to translate (commonly English).
• target_language_code: BCP 47 / ISO 15897 code (e.g. es, fr, de, zh-CN, pt-BR).
• target_language_name: Full language name as a hint for tone (e.g. Spanish (Spain)).
• context_key (optional): The i18n key (e.g. error.save_failed, button.delete) to inform tone and brevity.

Output

Return only the translated string.

Process

1. Identify placeholders

Extract every placeholder and record its position so you can verify it survives translation.

Pattern	Example	Notes
{{var}}	{{count}}, {{user.email}}	Angular/Mustache/i18n interpolation
{var}	{username}, {0}	Generic
${var}	${total}	Template literals
%s, %d, %f	%s items	printf-style
%{var}	%{count}	Ruby/Rails-style
[[var]]	[[user]]	Custom brackets
<n>	<0>, <1>	Numbered tags

2. Analyze formatting

• Capitalization: Title Case / Sentence case / UPPER / lower
• Punctuation: trailing ., !, ?, :, ellipsis (... vs …), label colon Name:
• HTML entities:  , &, <, >, "
• Special characters: \n, \t, escaped quotes
• Length: button labels and short labels must stay concise

3. Infer tone from context key

Key pattern	Tone
error.* / *.error	Formal, clear
warning.*	Cautionary
button.* / *.button	Concise, imperative
tooltip.* / *.tooltip	Helpful, brief
title.* / *.title	Formal, prominent
placeholder.*	Instructive, brief
label.*	Concise, descriptive
confirm.*	Question form
success.*	Positive, affirming
help.* / *.hint	Helpful, guiding

4. Translate

Rules:

1. Preserve placeholders exactly — do not translate, modify, or alter their syntax.
2. Match the formality the locale expects for UI text (e.g. Spanish formal "usted", French "vous", German "Sie", Russian "вы", Japanese です/ます).
3. Keep similar length when reasonable, especially for buttons and labels.
4. Preserve capitalization style, trailing punctuation, HTML entities, and escapes.
5. Prefer natural target-language phrasing over literal translation.
6. Handle gender/plurals appropriately for the target language.

5. Verify

Before returning, confirm:

• All placeholders from source appear in translation unchanged.
• Placeholder order is grammatically logical for the target language.
• Capitalization style matches source.
• Trailing punctuation is preserved.
• HTML entities are preserved.
• No stray whitespace or formatting changes.

Language-Specific Notes

• Spanish: inverted ¿...?, ¡...!; accents required (sí, está).
• French: spaces before :, ;, !, ?; proper accents.
• German: capitalize all nouns; compound words common.
• Chinese (zh-CN, zh-TW): no spaces between characters; use Chinese punctuation (，。？！); keep Arabic numerals.
• Japanese: mix kanji/hiragana/katakana; Japanese punctuation (、。).
• Arabic / Hebrew: RTL — placeholder positions may differ grammatically (UI handles direction).
• Russian: use «...» quotation marks; respect case endings.

Examples

Basic

source_text: "Delete"
target: es / Spanish
→ "Eliminar"

With placeholder

source_text: "Hello {{name}}, welcome back!"
target: fr / French
context_key: "greeting.welcome"
→ "Bonjour {{name}}, bienvenue !"

Multiple placeholders

source_text: "{{count}} items selected"
target: de / German
→ "{{count}} Elemente ausgewählt"

Preserved punctuation/quoting

source_text: "Are you sure you want to delete \"{{name}}\"?"
target: es / Spanish
context_key: "confirm.delete"
→ "¿Está seguro de que desea eliminar \"{{name}}\"?"

Label with colon

source_text: "Email Address:"
target: fr / French
context_key: "label.email"
→ "Adresse e-mail :"

Common Pitfalls

1. Translating placeholders: {{name}} must stay {{name}}, not {{nombre}}.
2. Changing placeholder syntax: {{var}} must not become {var} or [[var]].
3. Losing punctuation: if source ends with ., translation should too.
4. Inconsistent formality within a string.
5. Over-translating loanwords/technical terms commonly used in English in the locale.
6. Breaking HTML entities.