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Can I ask a question in a language other than English?

English is required for all content on Stack Overflow

All content on Stack Overflow must be written in English—that includes questions, answers, comments, and even chat messages.

We have professional and enthusiast programmers from all over the world who use English as a common language to ask and answer programming questions on Stack Overflow, with the goal of building our shared repository of knowledge.

While we understand that this may be frustrating and discouraging to those of you who do not speak English fluently, the moderation burden would simply be too high if we allowed posts to be written in any human language. It is already hard enough to create and maintain a database of high-quality questions and answers about programming. Allowing posts in every possible human language would increase that burden exponentially.

Why English? Like it or not, English is as close as the world has ever come to a global lingua franca. As the official language of over 50 different countries, spoken by nearly 2 billion people, and the most-taught second language, English has become the de facto language of science, technology, and international diplomacy. English is the #1 language of the Internet, and, for Stack Overflow specifically, most programming languages and APIs are based on English.

I want to ask in a language other than English; where else can I go?

Stack Overflow is part of the Stack Exchange network. Among our many Q&A sites focused on different topics are several whose scopes overlap with Stack Overflow but are in languages other than English.

If you would be more comfortable participating in a language other than English, please check out the following localized variants of Stack Overflow:

  • Favicon スタック・オーバーフロー (Stack Overflow in Japanese)

    スタック・オーバーフローは、職業プログラマーから週末プログラマーまで、プログラミングに情熱をそそぐ人のための日本語版Q&Aサイトです。質問や回答は日本語で行っており、英語を使っている Stack Overflow とは異なります。対象としている質問の範囲についてはヘルプセンターをご確認ください。

I want to ask on Stack Overflow, but I don't speak English very well

That's OK! We don't expect your English to be perfect. Even native speakers can make mistakes.

All we ask is that you try your best. As long as you write your post in the best English you can, and we are able to make sense out of what you are trying to say, we will help you to edit and improve your post. Many members of our community have excellent English skills, and they are happy to help you by improving your grammar/spelling or even rewriting some sentences.

While machine translation (e.g., Google Translate, Bing Translator, and DeepL Translator) doesn't always produce the right result, it has gotten quite good. It can be a great way to get started or to double-check things when you are uncertain. (Of course, you are always ultimately responsible for the content and accuracy of what you post.) You can also ask someone you know who speaks better English to help proofread your post before you submit it.

In summary: try your best, we will try our best to help, and don't take it personally.

I already asked on Stack Overflow, but my question was closed/deleted because it was not written in English

Questions that are not written in English will generally be closed by the community. The purpose of closing a question is to prevent it from being answered while it is being edited.

If you are comfortable asking and responding in English…

…then you should translate and rewrite your question in English:

  1. Click the "Edit" link below your question (underneath the tags).
  2. Delete all non-English text.
  3. Completely rewrite your question in English. (Don't forget the title!)
  4. Check the box labeled "This edit resolves the original close reason and the question should be considered for reopening".
  5. Click the "Save edits" button to submit your edits.

Your edited question will then be reviewed by the community and considered for reopening. Please be patient! It can take several hours, or even up to a few days, for your question to be reopened. For more details on the process of reviewing and reopening questions, please see:

In some cases, questions that are not written in English may be deleted from view. If your question was deleted in addition to being closed, then you will not be able to complete steps #4 and #5 from the list above. Instead, once you've edited your question to translate it into English, flag it for moderator review:

  1. Click the "Flag" link below your question (underneath the tags).
  2. Choose the "In need of moderator intervention" option.
  3. In the textbox provided, write a message to the moderators explaining that your question was closed/deleted because it was originally not written in English, but that you have now translated it.
  4. Click the "Flag question" button to submit your flag.

A moderator will review your post and, if it is determined to be on-topic for Stack Overflow, undelete and reopen it.

Again, please be patient! Flags are handled by the site moderators, who are volunteers. It may take several hours or days for your flag to be handled, but rest assured that we do look carefully at every single flag.

If you are not comfortable asking or responding in English…

…then we do not recommend that you translate your question to English. If reading/writing English is too difficult for you, then you will probably not be able to get help here. Effective participation on Stack Overflow requires understanding and engaging with comments and answers, which will all be written in English. While you could use a machine translation service to help, you need to be able to ensure that the translation is accurate.

I did what you said, but my question still hasn't been restored.

There are two possible reasons for this:

  1. You need to wait longer.

    As we said above, please be patient! Everyone on this site—both moderators and reviewers—is a volunteer, and it takes time for the processes that we have in place to work. However, if you followed the instructions provided here, your question should eventually be reviewed.

  2. Your question is still not suitable for Stack Overflow.

    Your question may have had multiple problems. The first and most obvious problem was that it was not written in English, which is why it was closed. Once you translated it into English, that problem was resolved. However, the reviewers may have found other problems with your question that make it unsuitable for Stack Overflow and would have resulted in it being closed anyway, even if it were originally written in English. After the review was completed, if your question was not re-opened, the blue banner that contains the "closed" notice will be updated with an explanation of why your question was not re-opened.