Drupal 8: Get The Current Language

26th April 2016 - 1 minute read time

To get the currently selected language on a Drupal 8 site you need to run the following.

$language = \Drupal::languageManager()->getCurrentLanguage()->getId();

This will return the 2 character ISO language code for the language. So for English this would be "en".

To get the language name instead of the language code use this.

$language =  \Drupal::languageManager()->getCurrentLanguage()->getName();
snippet
Drupal
Drupal 8

Comments

It,s really helpful. Thank you so much.

Submitted by Sarah Jay on Tue, 08/30/2016 - 20:46

Permalink

Short, cool and informative. Thank you!

Submitted by Josip Rajkovic on Wed, 10/17/2018 - 15:04

Permalink

Small remark,

To get the currently selected language for content :

$language = \Drupal::languageManager()->getCurrentLanguage(LanguageInterface::TYPE_CONTENT)->getId();

 

Submitted by tty11 on Thu, 02/07/2019 - 09:17

Permalink

Thank you Philip. I did not have the interface translation enabled so your snipped was always returning the default language. The snipped posted by "tty11" worked. Thanks tty11 :), however I will make a small change to it. Drupal couldn't find "LanguageInterface" in my theme's preprocess function, I had to provide namespace too as follows

$language = \Drupal::languageManager()->getCurrentLanguage(\Drupal\Core\Language\LanguageInterface::TYPE_CONTENT)->getId();

 

Submitted by Ejay Rus on Fri, 12/11/2020 - 09:57

Permalink

Thanks Ejay. I wrote this post during my first few weeks of Drupal 8 development. I've since learned a lot about how the language manager works so there are probably a few contextual issues with my original snippet :)

Philip Norton

Submitted by giHlZp8M8D on Fri, 12/11/2020 - 12:15

Permalink

Add new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
CAPTCHA
3 + 2 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Related Content

Drupal 11: Batch Processing Using Drush

1st September 2024

This is the second part of a series of articles looking at the Batch API in Drupal. The Batch API is a system in Drupal that allows data to be processed in small chunks in order to prevent timeout errors or memory problems.

Read more

Drupal 10: Adding Extra User Account Protection

14th April 2024

One of Drupal's strengths is its ability to create communities of users who contribute towards the content of the site. Whether you have an open forum, where users can create their own accounts, or a closed magazine with just a few editors your need to take the security of your users seriously.

Read more

Drupal 10: Opening An Ajax Dialog On Page Load

7th January 2024

Drupal has a quick and convenient way of creating ajax dialogs that gives users the ability to embed links in content that open up dialog boxes when clicked. This is a useful way of presenting a bit of content to a user without them navigating away from the page.

Read more