What language do you speak?

The TRANSLATE function became part of Excel in July 2024, and recently we have another useful function that you can use to detect the language in which a text is written. It’s a new DETECTLANGUAGE function, and you can use it in conjunction with the TRANSLATE function.

DETECTLANGUAGE function syntax:

DETECTLANGUAGE(<text>)

where the text can be a string or an address to a cell that contains it.

For example, if we enter some text in cell A2 (specifically, here is a short text about King Alexander I of Yugoslavia taken from Wikipedia), and then write the formula:

=DETECTLANGUAGE(A2)

As a result, we will get a language in which this text is written.

This can be used as an argument to the TRANSLATE function, and if we write the formula:

=TRANSLATE(A2; A4;” fr”)

Excel will translate the text from cell A2 into the selected language, in this case French.