All WCAG criteria
WCAG 3.1.2 · UnderstandableLevel AA

3.1.2Language of Parts

When parts of a page are in a different language, they must be marked with the appropriate `lang` attribute.

Common failures

Patterns that fail this criterion.

  • 01French quotes embedded in English text without `<span lang="fr">`
  • 02Multi-language menu items not marked
How to test

Testing approach: manual.

Manual — review text content; confirm passages in non-page-default languages are tagged.

How to fix

Remediation steps.

  1. 1

    Wrap foreign-language spans

    <span lang="fr">la vie est belle</span>

  2. 2

    Don't over-mark

    Single words now-common in English (e.g. "rendezvous", "déjà vu") don't need marking. Whole phrases or paragraphs do.

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Related criteria

Often appears with…

WCAG 3.1.1 · Level A

Language of Page

All 50 WCAG 2.1 Level A + AA success criteria explained.

View the full checklist