Internationalization (i18n) in a Vue app

Learn how to internationalize your Vue app with multi-directional support (LTR/RTL).

Usage

Nuxt UI provides an App component that wraps your app to provide global configurations.

Locale

Use the locale prop with the locale you want to use from @nuxt/ui/locale:

App.vue

<script setup lang="ts">
import { fr } from '@nuxt/ui/locale'
</script>

<template>
  <UApp :locale="fr">
    <RouterView />
  </UApp>
</template>

Custom locale

You also have the option to add your locale using defineLocale:

App.vue

<script setup lang="ts">
import { defineLocale } from '@nuxt/ui/runtime/composables/defineLocale'

const locale = defineLocale({
  name: 'My custom locale',
  code: 'en',
  dir: 'ltr',
  messages: {
    // implement pairs
  }
})
</script>

<template>
  <UApp :locale="locale">
    <RouterView />
  </UApp>
</template>

Look at the code parameter, there you need to pass the iso code of the language. Example:

hi Hindi (language)
de-AT: German (language) as used in Austria (region)

Dynamic locale

To dynamically switch between languages, you can use the Vue I18n plugin.

Install the Vue I18n package

pnpm add vue-i18n@10

yarn add vue-i18n@10

npm install vue-i18n@10

bun add vue-i18n@10

Use the Vue I18n plugin in your `main.ts`

main.ts

import { createApp } from 'vue'
import { createI18n } from 'vue-i18n'
import ui from '@nuxt/ui/vue-plugin'
import App from './App.vue'

const i18n = createI18n({
  legacy: false,
  locale: 'en',
  availableLocales: ['en', 'de'],
  messages: {
    en: {
      // ...
    },
    de: {
      // ...
    }
  }
})

const app = createApp(App)

app.use(i18n)
app.use(ui)

app.mount('#app')

Set the `locale` prop using `useI18n`

App.vue

<script setup lang="ts">
import { useI18n } from 'vue-i18n'
import * as locales from '@nuxt/ui/locale'

const { locale } = useI18n()
</script>

<template>
  <UApp :locale="locales[locale]">
    <RouterView />
  </UApp>
</template>

Dynamic direction

Each locale has a dir property which will be used by the App component to set the directionality of all components.

In a multilingual application, you might want to set the lang and dir attributes on the <html> element dynamically based on the user's locale, which you can do with the useHead composable:

App.vue

<script setup lang="ts">
import { computed } from 'vue'
import { useI18n } from 'vue-i18n'
import { useHead } from '@unhead/vue'
import * as locales from '@nuxt/ui/locale'

const { locale } = useI18n()

const lang = computed(() => locales[locale.value].code)
const dir = computed(() => locales[locale.value].dir)

useHead({
  htmlAttrs: {
    lang,
    dir
  }
})
</script>

<template>
  <UApp :locale="locales[locale]">
    <RouterView />
  </UApp>
</template>

Supported languages

By default, the en locale is used.

Language	Code	Direction
العربية	`ar`	`rtl`
Čeština	`cs`	`ltr`
Deutsch	`de`	`ltr`
English	`en`	`ltr`
Español	`es`	`ltr`
فارسی	`fa-IR`	`rtl`
Français	`fr`	`ltr`
Italiano	`it`	`ltr`
Polski	`pl`	`ltr`
Русский	`ru`	`ltr`
简体中文	`zh-Hans`	`ltr`
繁体中文	`zh-Hant`	`ltr`

If you need additional languages, you can contribute by creating a PR to add a new locale in src/runtime/locale/.

You can use the nuxt-ui CLI to create a new locale:

nuxt-ui make locale --code "en" --name "English"

Internationalization (i18n) in a Nuxt app

Learn how to internationalize your Nuxt app with multi-directional support (LTR/RTL).

defineShortcuts

A composable to define keyboard shortcuts in your app.