Since the customer-store relationship is based on communication it's best to reach out to them in their local language. Correspondingly, you need to translate email templates in Magento 2 when you set up a multi-language store

By default Magento allows you to translate emails by creating multiple copies in different languages. However, depending on the number of languages you have, email templates might just be too much to handle. 

Nevertheless, in this guide, we'll show you how you can translate emails in default Magento and simplify the process with a handy tip.

Translate Email Templates in Default Magento

1. Navigate to Marketing > Communications > Emails Templates and press the Add New Template button.

Magento 2 new template adding

2. Load the Default Template you want to create the translation for (we have selected the New Order email template as an example).

Magento 2 email default template

3. Fill in the Template Information.

Once you've loaded the Magento 2 email template you want to translate, you need to fill in such fields as Template Name and Template Subject.

Magento 2 new email template information

4. Translate the Template Content, add the Template Styles and Save the template.

Magento 2 new email template content and styles

After saving, you will see your template in the list of all Magento 2 templates.

Magento 2 new template

 5. Enable a newly created Magento email template in the store configurations.

To do that navigate to Stores > Configuration > Sales > Sales Emails and change the Store View to the one you've translated the email template for. 

Then set the translated template in the New Order Confirmation Template (your path can be different depending on the template).

Magento 2 new template stores configuration

Long story short — you have to load and translate each template as many times as many languages you have. Then assign each email to a different store view. 

Translate Magento Email Templates To Multiple Languages

If you don't want to spend tons of time localizing your transactional emails, there is an easier way — Magento 2 Translation Extension

It allows you to translate Magento email templates into multiple languages within one grid. 

Intrigued?

To translate email templates using the Translation extension, you, all the same, need to go to Marketing > Communications > Emails Templates and load a template you'd like to translate.

  translate email templates magento 2

However, you don't have to do anything else. Just Save the template you've loaded. 

The thing is Magento wraps all phrases in the email templates in the translation function — {|{trans "Your %store_name order confirmation"}}.  And that's what allows you to do the translation easier. 

Once you've loaded the template, go to Systems > Translation > Search and Translate and filter the phrases by Source "email". 

search and translate Magento

Then you just add your translations and Save them. That's basically it. You don't need to assign a template for different store views or create multiple templates like in the default Magento. 

translate email templates in magento 2

Working with a multi-language Magento requires more time and effort than with a single-language one. So after you translate your emails, note that you also need to translate products, categories and other content visible on the frontend.