:lang() - CSS: Cascading Style Sheets

The :lang() CSS pseudo-class matches elements based on the language they are determined to be in.

/* Selects any <p> in English (en) */
p:lang(en) {
  quotes: '\201C' '\201D' '\2018' '\2019';
}

Note: In HTML, the language is determined by a combination of the lang attribute, the <meta> element, and possibly by information from the protocol (such as HTTP headers). For other document types there may be other document methods for determining the language.

Syntax

Formal syntax

:lang( <language-code> )

Parameter

<language-code>: A <string> representing the language you want to target. Acceptable values are specified in the HTML spec.

Examples

In this example, the :lang() pseudo-class is used to match the parents of quote elements (<q>) using child combinators. Note that this doesn't illustrate the only way to do this, and that the best method to use depends on the type of document. Also note that Unicode values are used to specify some of the special quote characters.

HTML

<div lang="en"><q>This English quote has a <q>nested</q> quote inside.</q></div>
<div lang="fr"><q>This French quote has a <q>nested</q> quote inside.</q></div>
<div lang="de"><q>This German quote has a <q>nested</q> quote inside.</q></div>

CSS

:lang(en) > q { quotes: '\201C' '\201D' '\2018' '\2019'; }
:lang(fr) > q { quotes: '« ' ' »'; }
:lang(de) > q { quotes: '»' '«' '\2039' '\203A'; }

Result

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
Selectors Level 4 The definition of ':lang()' in that specification.	Working Draft	Adds wildcard language matching and comma-separated list of languages.
Selectors Level 3 The definition of ':lang()' in that specification.	Recommendation	No significant change.
CSS Level 2 (Revision 1) The definition of ':lang()' in that specification.	Recommendation	Initial definition.

Browser compatibility

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
`:lang()`	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 8	Opera Full support 8	Safari Full support 3.1	WebView Android Full support 1	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support 10.1	Safari iOS Full support 3.1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0

Legend

Full support: Full support