Did you know that you can use Google Translate directly inside Google Sheets to translate text across different languages? With just a simple built-in function, you can convert words, phrases, or entire sentences without leaving your spreadsheet. Here’s how to do it.

Step 1: Understand the GOOGLETRANSLATE Function

Google Sheets provides a built-in function called GOOGLETRANSLATE. Its syntax is:

=GOOGLETRANSLATE(text, [source_language], [target_language])

- text: The string you want to translate (can be a cell reference)
- source_language: The original language (use ISO-639-1 codes like "en" for English, "id" for Indonesian)
- target_language: The language you want the text to be translated to

Step 2: Basic Example

Let’s say cell A1 contains the word “Hello”. To translate it into Indonesian, use:

=GOOGLETRANSLATE(A1, "en", "id")

Step 3: Auto-Detect the Source Language

If you don’t know the source language, you can leave it blank or use "auto" like this:

=GOOGLETRANSLATE(A1, "auto", "es")

This will detect the language automatically and translate it to Spanish.

Common Language Codes

Language	Code
English	`en`
Arabic	`ar`
French	`fr`
Spanish	`es`
Portuguese	`pt`
Russian	`ru`
Chinese (Simplified)	`zh`
German	`de`
Hindi	`hi`
Bengali	`bn`
Japanese	`ja`
Korean	`ko`
Italian	`it`
Indonesian	`id`
Turkish	`tr`
Vietnamese	`vi`
Persian	`fa`
Swahili	`sw`
Dutch	`nl`
Thai	`th`
Polish	`pl`
Ukrainian	`uk`
Greek	`el`
Hungarian	`hu`
Czech	`cs`
Romanian	`ro`
Malay	`ms`
Hebrew	`he`
Norwegian	`no`
Finnish	`fi`
Swedish	`sv`
Danish	`da`
Slovak	`sk`
Serbian	`sr`
Croatian	`hr`
Bulgarian	`bg`
Lithuanian	`lt`
Latvian	`lv`
Estonian	`et`
Filipino	`tl`
Urdu	`ur`
Nepali	`ne`
Sinhala	`si`
Amharic	`am`
Mongolian	`mn`
Armenian	`hy`
Georgian	`ka`
Azerbaijani	`az`
Kazakh	`kk`
Uzbek	`uz`
Turkmen	`tk`
Tajik	`tg`
Pashto	`ps`
Kurdish	`ku`

Tips and Use Cases

Translate customer feedback from different countries.
Create multilingual dashboards or reports.
Help non-native users understand labels or instructions.

Final Thoughts

While it’s not a substitute for professional translation, the GOOGLETRANSLATE function is a powerful tool for quick and effective language conversion right inside your spreadsheet. Whether for personal productivity or business needs, it’s worth exploring!

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