Template:Interlanguage link

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For guidance, see Help:Interlanguage links § Inline links.

This template links conditionally to pages on non-English Wikipedias. If the specified article does not exist on the English Wikipedia, this template intentionally displays a red link to that anticipated but still-nonexistent article, followed by link(s) to the specified article(s) on the non-English Wikipedia(s), shown under the corresponding language code(s), in brackets. Hovering over a non-English link displays the name of the article on the non-English Wikipedia, as normal. Links to non-English Wikipedia articles are always blue; it is up to the editor to make sure they link to the intended article.

If the specified article exists (that is, after the anticipated article has been created) on the English Wikipedia, this template will only show the blue link to that article, and no longer to the non-English link(s). If a redirect of that name exists but relates to a different topic, {{ill}} will link to the incorrect English-language article.

Because {{ill}} normally produces a working link along with a redlink, it is appropriate for use in hatnotes, in spite of the general advice to avoid redlinks in hatnotes.

Please be aware Cewbot removes this template when it detects the target article has been created on English Wikipedia, converting {{ill}} links to regular (blue) links.

See also: Wikipedia:Database reports/Interlanguage link templates need to fix

Usage

There are several ways of using this template. It can either produce links to one or more specific languages, or to the Wikidata table of languages (see the § Link to Wikidata section below).

Basic syntax:
{{Interlanguage link|English article title|language code|Title in foreign language}}

The shortcut {{ill}} may be used.

A full list of language codes can be found at List of Wikipedias § Active editions.

As of 2025, if there is a redirect for the term in English Wikipedia, both the redirected (blue) link and interlanguage link(s) are displayed. This is why "casa" appears as a bluelink in the example below.

Where there are multiple interlanguage links readers may be confused about their purpose. The template {{interlanguage link info}} may be placed at the head of a page or section.

Alternatives

Please see Help:Interlanguage links#Inline links for the several ways you can add interlanguage links, of which this template is only one way, if the recommended one.

Link to one foreign language

To link to a foreign language article with the same title as the English Wikipedia, the parameters are:

{{ill|Article title|language code}}

• {{ill|Estikay|de}} produces: Estikay (as of November 2025, no English article exists)

Please find a list of language codes at List of Wikipedias § Active editions.

If the English article does exist, the ill link will be invisible (and indeed, will later be removed by a bot):

• {{ill|Hanning Schröder|de}} produces: Hanning Schröder (the English article exists),

To link to a foreign language article with a different title, the parameters are:

{{ill|English article title|language code|Title in foreign language}}

• {{ill|Hooglede town hall|nl|Gemeentehuis van Hooglede}} produces: Hooglede town hall

Link to multiple languages

To link to multiple languages with the same title as the English language page, the titles of the page are not necessary; the parameters are:

{{ill|English article title|language 1 code||language 2 code||...}}

• for example {{ill|casa|es||it||ro}} produces: casa

Note: As of 2025, casa above is a redirect. Redirects appear as blue links even while foreign-language links are still shown.

Caution: Such redirects are likely to relate to a different topic, so {{ill}} will link to the incorrect English-language article. For example, if your intent is to provide a link to the Argentine town of Grünbein (which as of 2025 does not have an English-language article) and add {{ill|Grünbein|es}}, this will display as Grünbein (with a blue "es" linking to the Spanish article), but the main English link will bring up an unrelated English-language article (Durs Grünbein) because Grünbein redirects there. Similarly to circular redirects (see § Limitations below), there exists no perfect solution. You need to invent a red link to make it clear to the reader there's no point clicking the main link, and if and when an English article is created manually fix this. For example: add {{ill|Grünbein (Argentine town)|es|Grünbein|lt=Grünbein}} to provide Grünbein.

To link to multiple language articles, the parameters are:

{{ill|English article title|language 1 code|Title in language 1|language 2 code|Title in language 2|...}}

• for example {{ill|Olena Chaplynska|uk|Олена Чаплинська|ru|Чаплинская, Гелена|ja|モトローナ・チャプリーンシカ}} produces: Olena Chaplynska

If some of your languages use the same title, and others use different titles, you can combine these by adding the foreign title where needed:

• for example {{ill|casa|es||de|haus|it||ro}} produces: casa

Here we inserted German between Spanish and Italian in the casa example. Note the German article is the only one having a different title.

Modifying the display

Displaying different text

To create a piped link (text displayed that is different from the title of the page to which the text links), use the |lt= parameter (for link text). This is useful if disambiguation is necessary, for example to hide the "(botanist)" in Charles Darwin (botanist):

• {{ill|Charles Darwin (botanist)|lt=Charles Darwin|fr|Charles Darwin|de|Charles Darwin|es|Charles Darwin}} produces: Charles Darwin

Do not use {{!}} to create piped links, as doing so will prevent the foreign language links from disappearing if an English article is created:

{{ill|Maze (band){{!}}Mazy|...}} is not equivalent to {{ill|Maze (band)|lt=Mazy|...}}.

Forcing links

To display the interlanguage links even if the English Wikipedia article exists, add any value to the parameter |display= or its alias, |preserve=.

Input	Output
{{ill|Joke|fr|Blague|hu|Vicc|de|Witz}}	Joke
{{ill|Joke|fr|Blague|hu|Vicc|de|Witz|display=1}}	Joke

This feature should not be used in articles under most circumstances. However, in pages that are primarily lists of pages that link to the same language, it might be desirable all links on a page should link to other languages whether or not an English page exists. This feature can also be used as a work-around to eliminate expensive parser function calls.

Note: As of 2025, redirects appear as blue links even while foreign-language links are still shown (i.e. you do not necessarily need to force-show them; obviously you should still feel free to do so if you want to signal to other editors your intent is to force-show them).

Remove bold formatting from links

Do not display the interlanguage link in bold

Usually the display of the Interlanguage or Wikidata (the "appended link") are in normal font, but if the appended link is for example in a title line of table, then along with the rest of the line the appended link will be bold. In such circumstances the appended link can be set to display unbolded by adding any value for the parameter |nobold=.

Input	Output
'''{{ill|Charles Darwin (botanist)|fr|Charles Darwin|de|Charles Darwin}}'''	Charles Darwin (botanist)
'''{{ill|nobold=1|Charles Darwin (botanist)|fr|Charles Darwin|de|Charles Darwin}}'''	Charles Darwin (botanist)

Italics and quotation marks

Do not display the interlanguage link in italics

If the linked material should be in italics (e.g., it is a major work such as a film title), add any value to the |italic= parameter to generate italic markup around the link but not around the square-bracketed inter-language links.{{ill|Un papillon sur l'épaule|fr|italic=y}} produces: Un papillon sur l'épaule 

If the linked material should have quotation marks around it (e.g., it is a minor work such as a song title), add any value to the |quote= parameter to generate them around the link, but not around the square-bracketed inter-language links, and not themselves part of the link. This only does double quotation marks: {{ill|Maman ne le sait pas|fr|quote=y}} produces: "Maman ne le sait pas"

If both are used, quotation marks will appear around an italicized title, without italicizing the quotation marks.

Punctuation before language links

Punctuation can be controlled using the |lt= parameter. This is useful where punctuation such as a comma or period/full stop follows the expression. In this case you may wish to display the punctuation before the interlanguage link(s), especially if combining it with superscript display.

So, rather than have:

...the French concept of freedom of instruction.

which awkwardly displays the sentence-final punctuation after the French link, you can display it before:

...the French concept of freedom of instruction.

The second example above is achieved simply by borrowing the |lt= parameter, and including the punctuation in it, like this:

{{ill|freedom of instruction|fr|Liberté d'enseignement|lt=freedom of instruction.|v=sup}}

Be sure to move the punctuation from its usual position into the |lt= parameter.

Vertical alignment

The vertical alignment of the interlanguage/Wikidata links can be altered by adding:

• vertical-align=sup to place the links in superscript
• vertical-align=sub to place the links in subscript

The parameter aliases |valign= or |v= may be used instead.

Input	Output
{{ill|Charles Darwin (botanist)|fr|Charles Darwin|de|Charles Darwin|vertical-align=sup}}	Charles Darwin (botanist)
{{ill|Charles Darwin (botanist)|fr|Charles Darwin|de|Charles Darwin|valign=sub}}	Charles Darwin (botanist)
{{ill|Charles Darwin (botanist)|fr|Charles Darwin|de|Charles Darwin|v=sup}}	Charles Darwin (botanist)

Infobox font size

When this template is placed within elements that already use a smaller font size, such as infoboxes, the interlanguage link drops below 85% of the page's default font size. To prevent this and adhere to MOS:SMALLTEXT the value ib can be used with the vertical alignment parameter: vertical-align=ib (or v=ib, etc.)

Input	Output
{{ill|Charles Darwin (botanist)|fr|Charles Darwin|de|Charles Darwin|v=ib}}	Charles Darwin (botanist)

To be clear, what |vertical-align=ib does, it prevents the font size reduction, so that when the font size is later reduced by the info box placement, the interlanguage link(s) remain at or above 85% of the default font size.

This feature should only be used when the template is placed within infoboxes or other elements that use a smaller font size.

Link to Wikidata

To link to the Wikidata table of languages in which the article is available, the parameters are:

{{ill|Article title in English Wikipedia|qid=Wikidata item code}}

• {{ill|Jokery|qid=Q131138}} produces: Jokery

Note: Links to other Wikipedias are ignored if |qid= is present. In other words, you cannot combine links to Wikidata and foreign languages within the same instance of this template.

To display the Wikidata link as "d" instead of "Wikidata", add any value for the parameter |short= or its alias, |s=:

• {{ill|Jokery|qid=Q131138|s=1}} produces: Jokery

Automatic removal

If you create an {{interlanguage link}} and an English Wikipedia article is later created, this template will appear as a regular (blue) link as explained above. The underlying template, however, will eventually be edited automatically (it is one of the tasks assigned to bot Cewbot), removing the template and resulting in a regular (blue) link. While this is intended to save on the computational load, it does mean users will not again be directed to the foreign-language article if the article is later deleted as this information is lost. Instead, the now regular link will become a red link, as is normal when articles are deleted. Use |preserve= or |display= to prevent automatic removal; see § Forcing links above.

Limitations

Non-existent foreign article

On Wikipedia, links to nonexistent pages normally show as red links. However, this functionality only works within the Wikipedia site you're using. There is no way for this template, or any code on Wikipedia, to check whether an article on another language's Wikipedia exists. Links to all foreign-language articles, including nonexistent foreign-language articles, show as blue links when constructed. For example, both [[:fr:Maman ne le sait pas|Maman ne le sait pas]] → Maman ne le sait pas (exists) and [[:fr:no such article|no such article]] → no such article (does not exist) display the same.

Circular redirects

If the topic you are trying to provide interlanguage links for already exists on English Wikipedia, is a redirect, and this redirect points back to the article you are trying to edit, your template might astonish readers - they expect a blue link to lead to an English-language article, but all they get, is the same page reloaded.

Attempts have been made for the {{Interlanguage link}} template to automatically detect this, but currently none are functional. Please consider alternatives to using this template in this specific case; see #Alternatives above for a link to Help:Interlanguage links#Inline links, which provides comprehensive coverage.

Two specific recommendations:

1. You can replace an {{ill}} template with plain text followed by something like {{small|{{bracket|[[:en:Wikipedia:Example|en]]}}}} to provide the crucial small-type bracketed link to the other Wiki, in this [en] case, the Wikipedia:Example page at the en (English) wiki. Use this when retaining a link isn't deemed necessary.
2. If you wish to keep using the {{Interlanguage link}} template it is better to intentionally create a red link in order to signal to the reader the link isn't worth clicking on: {{ill|Example (a circular redirect)|lt=Example|fr|Example}} gives Example. Note how "Example" in this case is intentionally made into a red link while still providing a relevant interlanguage link to French Wikipedia.

There is no perfect solution - in both these cases manual editing will be necessary if and when the redirect is expanded into a proper article.

Interactions with other templates

This template may interact unfavorably with the {{lang}} template. For example, the following code will not work in article space (it works on talk and some other types of pages):

• {{ill|Machsor Lipsiae|de|lt={{lang|he-LA|Machsor Lipsiae}}}} → Machsor Lipsiae

For an alternative way to code this that works in all namespaces, please see Template:Lang#Links.

In other Wikipedias

The Manual of Style in Spanish Wikipedia, and perhaps others, deprecates interlanguage links in live articles, and therefore the local version of this template (es:Plantilla:ill) is disabled for main (article) space. It still works for discussion pages, for example.

Examples

• {{ill|TC Matic|af|TC Matic|nl|TC Matic|fr|TC Matic|es|TC Matic}} produces: TC Matic, because TC Matic exists here
• {{ill|TC Matic (band)|af|TC Matic|nl|TC Matic|fr|TC Matic|es|TC Matic}} produces: TC Matic (band), because TC Matic (band) does not exist here
• {{ill|TC Matic (band)|af||nl||fr||es|}} produces: TC Matic (band) – although shown in blue the interwiki links won't work because they default to the title "TC Matic (band)" which is wrong
• {{ill|TC Matic (band)|lt=TC Matic|af|TC Matic|nl|TC Matic|fr|TC Matic|es|TC Matic}} produces: TC Matic – the text "TC Matic" now redlinks to "TC Matic (band)"
• {{ill|TC Matic|lt=TC Matic (band)|af|TC Matic|nl|TC Matic|fr|TC Matic|es|TC Matic}} produces: TC Matic (band) – the text "TC Matic (band)" now links to "TC Matic" which exists

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:Interlanguage link in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for Interlanguage link

Link to other Wikipedias or Wikidata if an article in the English Wikipedia doesn't exist.

Template parameters[Edit template data]

Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Article name	1	Name of the English Wikipedia page, or suggested name if the page does not exist	Page name	required
Link text	lt	Text displayed for the link to the English Wikipedia article, if not the same as the article title. NOTE: this parameter begins with an lowercase "L", not an uppercase "i". Default English Wikipedia article title	Line	suggested
1st language code	2	Language code for the 1st page in another language	Line	suggested
1st page	3	Title of the page in the 1st other language, if not the same as the English Wikipedia page Default English Wikipedia article title	Line	suggested
2nd language code	4	Language code for the 2nd page in another language	Line	optional
2nd page	5	Title of the page in the 2nd other language, if not the same as the English Wikipedia page Default English Wikipedia article title	Line	optional
3rd language code	6	Language code for the 3rd page in another language	Line	optional
3rd page	7	Title of the page in the 3rd other language, if not the same as the English Wikipedia page Default English Wikipedia article title	Line	optional
4th language code	8	Language code for the 4th page in another language	Line	optional
4th page	9	Title of the page in the 4th other language, if not the same as the English Wikipedia page Default English Wikipedia article title	Line	optional
5th language code	10	Language code for the 5th page in another language	Line	optional
5th page	11	Title of the page in the 5th other language, if not the same as the English Wikipedia page Default English Wikipedia article title	Line	optional
6th language code	12	Language code for the 6th page in another language	Line	optional
6th page	13	Title of the page in the 6th other language, if not the same as the English Wikipedia page Default English Wikipedia article title	Line	optional
7th language code	14	Language code for the 7th page in another language	Line	optional
7th page	15	Title of the page in the 7th other language, if not the same as the English Wikipedia page Default English Wikipedia article title	Line	optional
8th language code	16	Language code for the 8th page in another language	Line	optional
8th page	17	Title of the page in the 8th other language, if not the same as the English Wikipedia page Default English Wikipedia article title	Line	optional
9th language code	18	Language code for the 9th page in another language	Line	optional
9th page	19	Title of the page in the 9th other language, if not the same as the English Wikipedia page Default English Wikipedia article title	Line	optional
10th language code	20	Language code for the 10th page in another language	Line	optional
10th page	21	Title of the page in the 10th other language, if not the same as the English Wikipedia page Default English Wikipedia article title	Line	optional
11th language code	22	Language code for the 11th page in another language	Line	optional
11th page	23	Title of the page in the 11th other language, if not the same as the English Wikipedia page Default English Wikipedia article title	Line	optional
12th language code	24	Language code for the 12th page in another language	Line	optional
12th page	25	Title of the page in the 12th other language, if not the same as the English Wikipedia page Default English Wikipedia article title	Line	optional
Wikidata item	qid	Wikidata item of the article. Replaces links to pages in other languages	Line	optional
Short Wikidata link text	short s	If anything is set for this, Wikidata item link is displayed as 'd'	String	optional
Preserve	preserve display	If anything is set for this, forces links to pages in other languages and projects to always display even if the English Wikipedia article exists	String	optional
No bold (or italic)	nobold	Entering any value will force links to other-language pages, Wikidata and the link brackets to force non-bold and non-italic text. Example yes	Line	optional
Italicize	italic italics	If anything is set for this, puts italicization markup around the text to be linked, without including the bracketed inter-language links within the italics	String	optional
Vertical alignment	vertical-align valign v	Alters the position of language links from baseline, to superscript ('sup') or subscript ('sub') position. It can also prevent the font size of the language links from being reduced when used in infoboxes, by entering 'ib'. Suggested values sup sub ib Default baseline	Line	optional
Quote	quote quotes	If anything is set for this, puts double quotation marks around the text to be linked. The quotation marks won't be linked, and the bracketed inter-language links will be outside the quotation marks. Suggested values yes	String	optional

Tracking categories

• Category:Interlanguage link template existing link (5,994)
• Category:Interlanguage link template forcing interwiki links (1,521)
• Category:Pages using interlanguage link with the wikidata parameter (113)
• Category:Interlanguage link template to be checked (0)
• Category:Pages using interlanguage link with unknown parameters (109)

Redirects

After a merge discussion, five other templates were merged into this template, and thus this template contains all of their features.

• {{Interlanguage link}}
• {{Interlanguage link forced}}
• {{Interlanguage link multi}}
• {{Interlanguage link Wikidata}}
• {{Link-interwiki}}
• {{Red Wikidata link}}

See also

• Help:Interlanguage links § Inline links for general inline linking to other language Wikipedias
• {{Wikidata fallback link}} which provides some functionality similar to |qid= in this template
• {{Further ill}}, a mashup of {{Further}} and {{ill}} for section header links
• {{Interwiki link}}, for use in discussions and documentation
• User:Cobaltcigs/IllWill – a tool that assists in finding interlanguage links

Notes

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Interlanguage link/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (edit | diff) and testcases (edit) pages.
Add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.