---
title: "How do I declare the language of an HTML page?"
description: "Put a BCP 47 tag in the `lang` attribute of the root element, for example `<html lang=\"de\">`. The `<meta http-equiv=\"content-language\">` pragma is non-conforming in the HTML standard, and the `Content-Language` HTTP header describes the intended audience, not the language the page is written in."
category: general
date: 2026-10-09
canonical: https://localizely.com/i18n-questions/general/how-do-i-declare-the-language-of-an-html-page/
---

# How do I declare the language of an HTML page?

Set the `lang` attribute on the root element to a BCP 47 language tag:

```html
<!doctype html>
<html lang="de">
```

That is the declaration browsers and assistive technology actually read. The [HTML standard](https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/dom.html#the-lang-and-xml:lang-attributes) derives the language of every node from the nearest `lang` attribute on the element or its ancestors and lists what user agents use it for: font selection, pronunciation, dictionary selection and the UI of form controls such as date pickers. Screen readers pick their voice from it (WCAG 3.1.1 requires a programmatically determinable page language), CSS `hyphens: auto` only hyphenates when `lang` is present, and `:lang()` selectors key off it.

Change the language inline wherever the text switches, and declare direction separately, because `lang` does not imply direction:

```html
<p>The German word for butterfly is <span lang="de">Schmetterling</span>.</p>
<p dir="rtl" lang="ar">محتوى بالعربية</p>
```

For a page that is mostly right-to-left, put `dir="rtl"` on `<html>` next to `lang`.

What about the alternatives?

- `<meta http-equiv="content-language" content="de">` is marked non-conforming in the [HTML standard](https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/semantics.html#attr-meta-http-equiv-content-language), which tells authors to use `lang` instead. If present, it sets a "pragma-set default language" that only applies to nodes with no `lang` anywhere in their ancestry, a value containing a comma is ignored entirely, and only the first of several space-separated tokens counts.
- The [`Content-Language`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Reference/Headers/Content-Language) HTTP header describes the audience the resource is intended for and may list several languages (`Content-Language: de-DE, en-CA`); it says nothing about the language the document is written in. The HTML standard uses it only as a last-resort fallback, and only when it carries a single tag.
- Google states that it determines page language from the visible content and does not use code-level information such as `lang` attributes, so `lang` serves users and browsers, not rankings.

If the same page exists in several languages, link the versions to each other with `hreflang` in `<head>`. Each page lists itself and all others, with `x-default` for the language-selection page:

```html
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="https://example.com/de/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/en/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/" />
```

The [hreflang generator](/hreflang-generator/) builds this block for a list of URLs. Values everywhere are BCP 47 tags: `de`, `en-GB`, `zh-Hant`.

Source: https://localizely.com/i18n-questions/general/how-do-i-declare-the-language-of-an-html-page/