Language Attribute Checker
Check the page declares its language, that the tag is real, and that sections in other languages say so.
About this tool
Checks the `lang` attribute on the html element, validates the tag against ISO 639-1, and lists any element on the page that declares a different language from the document.
Two things read this attribute and act on it.
A **screen reader** picks its pronunciation rules from it. A French page declared as English is read aloud with English phonetics, which is not merely awkward — it is unintelligible. This is the single highest-impact accessibility attribute on a page and it is one word long.
A **browser's translation prompt** fires on the declared language. Get it wrong and either the offer never appears for readers who need it, or the browser offers to translate the page into the language it is already in.
Sections in another language — a quotation, a product name, a testimonial — should carry their own `lang`, and those are listed here too.
Common questions
Is the lang attribute a ranking factor?
Google has said it uses the visible content rather than the attribute to decide a page's language. It still matters, just not for rankings: screen readers and translation prompts both depend on it, and neither has another source.
Should I write lang="en" or lang="en-GB"?
Either is valid. The region subtag only helps where it changes something — en-GB against en-US for a screen reader accent, or pt-BR against pt-PT where the vocabulary genuinely differs. Where it changes nothing, the bare language code is fine.
What is the difference between lang and hreflang?
lang declares what language this page is in. hreflang tells a search engine which other pages are the versions for other languages. They answer different questions and a site usually needs both.
Why does a quotation need its own lang?
Because a screen reader switches pronunciation on it. A German sentence inside an English page, without its own lang, is read with English phonetics — the same failure as a whole page declared wrongly, in miniature.