Change Microsoft Edge Language to English (Menus and Websites)

To change Microsoft Edge's language back to English, or to any language, type edge://settings/languages into the address bar and press Enter. In the Preferred languages list, add the language you want if it is missing, click the three dots next to it, choose Display Microsoft Edge in this language, and click Restart. You can do this even if every menu is in a language you cannot read, because the address works in every language and the steps are always in the same places. Here is the distinction that solves the other half of the problem: Edge's menus and the language of the websites you visit are two separate settings. Changing Edge's display language does not change which language Google, YouTube or news sites show you. That is decided by the order of the Preferred languages list, and sometimes by the website itself based on where you are. This page fixes both.

Ethan's grandfather bought a laptop while visiting family in Lisbon, and when he got home, Edge greeted him in Portuguese. Every menu, every button, every message. The laptop's Windows was in English, which made it more confusing, not less. He managed a week by guessing the buttons from their icons, then brought it to Jake's shop. Jake typed one address into Edge, clicked the three dots beside English, chose the option that was always second in that menu, and clicked the button that appeared. Edge restarted in English. Then, while he was there, he dragged English to the top of the list underneath, because Google had been showing Portuguese results too. That is where this page starts: getting Edge's menus into your language, getting websites into your language, and understanding why Edge picked the wrong one in the first place.

Edge supports more than 100 interface languages, and switching between them takes about a minute. Nothing is lost when you switch: favorites, passwords, history and extensions stay exactly as they were. Only the words on Edge's own menus and pages change.

Edge's four language settings, and what each one controls

Most confusion about Edge and language comes from mixing up settings that live on the same page but do different jobs. Here they are side by side.

All four are on edge://settings/languages. Two more language-related things happen outside Edge: the Windows keyboard layout decides which characters you type, and each website may keep its own language preference. Both are covered further down.

How to change Edge's display language to English (or any language)

1. Click Edge's address bar, type edge://settings/languages and press Enter. This opens the Languages page directly, whatever language Edge is in. You can also get there through the three-dot menu, then Settings, then Languages in the left-hand list.
2. Look at the Preferred languages list near the top. If English (or the language you want) is already there, skip to step 4.
3. Click Add languages, type the language name, check it, and click Add. Choose the right variety where offered, such as English (United States) or English (United Kingdom); it affects spelling and some formats.
4. Click the three dots to the right of the language.
5. Choose Display Microsoft Edge in this language. A message appears saying the change takes effect after a restart.
6. Click Restart. Edge closes and reopens with your tabs, now in the new language.

If Display Microsoft Edge in this language is missing from the menu, that language may not be available for Edge's interface (it may be available for spell checking only), or a policy is controlling the language; see the policy section. If it is checked already but Edge still shows another language, restart Edge completely, including closing it from the system tray if it keeps running in the background.

When you cannot read Edge's current language: a position-by-position walkthrough

The hardest version of this problem is when Edge is in a language you do not read at all, perhaps a different script entirely. You do not need to read anything. Addresses and positions are the same in every language.

1. Click the address bar, type edge://settings/languages exactly, and press Enter. The page opens regardless of language.
2. The first box on the page is the Preferred languages list. Language names are often shown in their own script, so "English" usually appears as "English" even inside a fully foreign Edge.
3. If English is not in the list, the first button under the list adds a language. Click it, type English into the search box that appears, check the result, and click the main (usually blue) button.
4. Next to English, click the three dots icon (it looks like "...").
5. In the small menu that opens, the option with the check box or the Edge-related wording is Display Microsoft Edge in this language. On most versions it is the first or second item. Click it.
6. A button appears at the top of the list; it is Restart. Click it.

If you are helping someone over the phone, have them read the address back to you letter by letter before pressing Enter. Most failures come from a typo in the address, not from the steps.

Websites showing in the wrong language? Fix the language order

Changing Edge's menus does not change the language of websites. When Edge asks a website for a page, it sends a list of your preferred languages, in order. Sites that offer several languages use the first one on that list they support. That is why Google, YouTube or a news site can keep showing another language even after Edge's own menus are in English.

1. Open edge://settings/languages.
2. In Preferred languages, find your language.
3. Click the three dots next to it and choose Move to the top.
4. Optional: remove languages you do not read, with the three dots and Remove, so sites never fall back to them.
5. Reload the website. Many sites switch immediately; others remember your previous choice in a cookie and need one more step.

When a site still ignores your language

Some big sites decide your language from other signals, and need their own setting changed once:

• Google Search uses your Google account's language setting and your location. Open Google's settings (Settings at the bottom of google.com, then Languages) and choose your language. Signed in, the choice follows your account; signed out, it is stored in a cookie for that browser.
• YouTube has its own language and location settings, in the profile menu at the top right.
• Microsoft sites and Bing follow the region and language of your Microsoft account and Bing's own settings page.
• Shops and news sites often use your IP address to guess your country, especially while traveling. Look for a language or country selector in the site's header or footer.

A VPN can cause the same effect: sites see the VPN server's country and serve its language. If a site switched language when your VPN connected, that is why.

Why Edge is in the wrong language in the first place

Knowing the cause stops it happening again. These are the usual reasons, roughly from most to least common.

1. Windows' display language. When Edge is installed or first runs, it uses the Windows display language. A laptop bought in another country, or set up by someone who chose a different language during Windows setup, passes that language to Edge. Changing Windows' language later does not always change Edge's, because Edge keeps its own setting once set.
2. A sync from another device. Edge can sync some settings through your Microsoft account. If another PC you sign in to uses a different language, its preferences can arrive on this one.
3. An Edge reset or reinstall. Resetting or reinstalling Edge returns it to following Windows' language, which may not be what you had chosen.
4. Someone else changed it. On shared PCs, another family member exploring settings is a common culprit.
5. A work policy. On work PCs, IT can fix Edge's language for everyone.

The steps above fix all of them, and the fix sticks unless a policy or sync puts it back. If Edge reverts after a restart, check sync and policies first. It is also worth knowing that a Windows feature update does not normally change Edge's language. If Edge changes language right after an update, the update most likely reset Edge or a sync arrived at the same time, and setting the language once more puts it right.

Edge vs Windows language: which one should you change?

Edge follows Windows when it starts fresh, so the cleanest setup has both in the same language. If Windows itself is in the wrong language, fix that first, then Edge.

To change Windows' display language on Windows 11, open Settings > Time & language > Language & region, add your language if needed, choose it under Windows display language, then sign out and back in. On Windows 10 the path is Settings > Time & Language > Language. Our guide to changing the Windows language walks through it, including installing the language pack.

Some people deliberately keep different languages, such as Windows in their native language and Edge in English for work, or the other way around. That works perfectly: set each one separately and they stay that way. Only Single Language editions of Windows, common on budget laptops in some countries, restrict the Windows display language to one. Edge's own language can still be changed freely on those.

Spell check and typing languages in Edge

The same Languages page controls spell checking, which is a frequent source of red underlines in the "wrong" language.

• Under Check spelling (sometimes called Writing assistance), turn on spell checking for each language you type in. Edge can check several at once.
• Turn off languages you never write in, so Edge stops flagging your English as misspelled Portuguese.
• Edge's built-in writing assistance, Microsoft Editor, offers grammar and style suggestions in some languages. It can be switched off on the same page if you prefer basic spelling only.

If words you use often are always marked wrong, right-click them and add them to the dictionary. Custom words are saved to your profile and sync with it. Names, brand names and technical terms are the usual candidates. If you add a word by mistake, the custom dictionary list on the same Languages page lets you remove it again, so experimenting costs nothing. For long documents and email, the spell check in Word or Outlook is more thorough than the browser's, but for forms, comments and web mail, Edge's checker catches most slips before you press Send.

Translating pages in another language

Edge can translate whole pages on the fly with Microsoft Translator. When you open a page in a language that is not in your Preferred languages list, Edge offers to translate it with a small icon in the address bar. You can also right-click a page and choose Translate to your language at any time.

On the Languages page, the option Offer to translate pages that aren't in a language I read controls the automatic offer, and you can set Edge to always translate a particular language or never translate a particular site. That last option matters for sites where you want to read the original, such as a language-learning site.

Translation is also a lifesaver for the original problem: if Edge or a website is in a language you cannot read, translating the page often makes the setting you need readable long enough to change it.

Changing Edge's language on Mac, Linux, iPhone and Android

Mac. On macOS, Edge follows the system's language settings rather than its own Display option. Open System Settings > General > Language & Region, then under Applications, click +, choose Microsoft Edge, and pick its language. Restart Edge. The Preferred languages list inside Edge still controls website languages and spell checking.

Linux and Kali. Edge on Linux follows the system locale. Change the language in your desktop environment's region settings, or start Edge with a specific locale from a terminal, for example LANGUAGE=en_US microsoft-edge, to test without changing the whole system.

Android. Recent Android versions offer per-app languages: Settings > Apps > Microsoft Edge > Language. On older versions, Edge follows the phone's language.

iPhone and iPad. Open the iPhone's Settings app, scroll to Edge, tap Language and choose one. Edge restarts in that language.

Where the language setting lives on each platform

Typing the wrong characters? That is the keyboard layout, not Edge

A related problem often gets blamed on Edge: you type a letter and a different character appears, such as a quotation mark where @ should be, or the letters come out in another alphabet. That is the Windows keyboard layout, which applies to every app, not Edge's language.

Look at the language abbreviation near the clock on the taskbar, such as ENG or POR. Press Windows + Space to cycle through installed keyboard layouts, or click the abbreviation and pick the right one. To remove layouts you never use, open Settings > Time & language > Language & region, click the three dots next to a language, choose Language options, and remove the extra keyboard. An accidental press of Windows + Space or Left Alt + Shift switches layouts, which is why it seems to happen by itself.

A laptop bought abroad may also have physical key labels for another layout. You can still type in your usual layout by choosing it in Windows; the letters printed on the keys will simply not match a few symbols.

Region vs language: dates, prices and units

Even with everything in English, dates may show day and month the other way round, prices in another currency, or temperatures in the wrong units. Those come from regional settings rather than language.

Windows' regional format, under Settings > Time & language > Language & region > Regional format, decides how dates, times and numbers appear in Windows and many apps. Websites, though, mostly decide currency and units from where they think you are, using your IP address and their own country settings. A shop showing euros while you are in the US, or a weather site using Celsius, is usually a site setting or a VPN, not Edge. Look for a country or currency selector on the site itself, and set your region in your Microsoft or Google account so sites that use account information get it right.

Learning a language? Edge's built-in helpers

Edge's language features are not only for fixing mistakes. They make a decent language-learning companion.

• Translate a selection. Select a sentence on a page, right-click it, and choose to translate the selection. Only that text is translated, leaving the rest of the page in the original for practice.
• Immersive Reader. On many articles, press F9 or click the book icon in the address bar. Immersive Reader shows a clean version of the text and, depending on the language, can read it aloud, highlight parts of speech and translate it. Reading aloud at a slow speed is excellent listening practice.
• Keep the learning language in Preferred languages. Adding it lower in the list stops Edge offering to translate pages in that language, so you read them as they are.
• A separate profile in the language you are learning. Setting a second Edge profile's display language to your target language gives you constant, low-stakes practice with everyday words, with your normal profile one click away.

Edge keeps switching back to the wrong language

If Edge returns to the old language after you change it, one of these is responsible.

1. Edge never fully restarted. With Startup boost on, Edge keeps running in the background after you close it. Restart from the button on the Languages page, or turn off Startup boost under Settings > System and performance, close Edge, and open it again.
2. Sync is bringing the old setting back. Open Settings > Profiles > Sync and check which items sync. Change the language on your other devices too, or temporarily turn off settings sync while you fix it.
3. A different profile. Each Edge profile has its own language. Check the profile picture at the top left; you may have changed one profile and be using another.
4. A policy. If the option is grayed out with a building icon, a policy sets the language. See the next section.
5. A reset or repair. Repairing or resetting Edge can return it to Windows' language. Set it again afterward; nothing else is lost.

Some parts of Edge stay in another language

After switching, a few corners of Edge may still show another language, and that is normal.

• Extensions have their own text, chosen by each extension's developer. An extension that only offers English or only Portuguese shows that, whatever Edge's language.
• Experimental pages such as edge://flags are English-only for everyone.
• Websites and web apps follow the Preferred languages order and their own settings, as above.
• Some Microsoft service panels inside Edge, such as shopping or Copilot features, follow your Microsoft account's region and language.
• Windows dialogs that Edge opens, such as the Save As window or printer dialogs, follow Windows' display language, not Edge's.

If Windows dialogs inside Edge are in the wrong language, the fix is Windows' display language rather than Edge's.

Browsing in several languages at once

For people who read and write in two or three languages, Edge can handle all of them gracefully with a little setup.

1. Order the Preferred languages list by preference: the first is what sites show by default, the second is the fallback, and so on.
2. Turn on spell check for every language you type in. Edge checks against all selected dictionaries at once, so a sentence in either language is checked correctly.
3. Set translation rules per language. Edge does not offer to translate languages in your list. For languages you read only a little, leave them out and let Edge offer to translate, or set "Always translate" for languages you never read.
4. Exclude specific sites from translation when you want the original, using the translation icon's options in the address bar.
5. Consider a second profile if you keep work in one language and personal life in another, each with its own display language and favorites.

Fixing the language for someone else, remotely

Often the person with the foreign-language Edge is a parent or grandparent, and you are on the phone. Two approaches work well.

Talk them through it by position. Have them click the long box at the very top of Edge, the address bar, and type the address slowly, letter by letter: e, d, g, e, colon, slash, slash, settings, slash, languages. Ask them to read it back before pressing Enter. Then guide them by position and shape: "the list near the top, the line that says English, the three little dots at the right end of that line, the option near the top of the small menu, then the button that just appeared." Language names often appear in their own script, so "English" is usually readable even when nothing else is.

Use Quick Assist. Both of you search for Quick Assist in the Start menu, or press Ctrl + Windows + Q. You sign in and get a code; they type it in and allow you to take control. You can then fix the language in a minute, along with anything else you notice. Only do this with people you know, and remind them that real support staff never call out of the blue asking for a Quick Assist code.

Troubleshooting checklist, in order

1. Open edge://settings/languages and set Display Microsoft Edge in this language on your language.
2. Click Restart, and if Startup boost is on, close Edge fully once.
3. Move your language to the top of Preferred languages for websites.
4. Change the language on stubborn sites such as Google and YouTube directly.
5. Check the profile you are using and whether sync is restoring another language.
6. Check edge://policy for ApplicationLocaleValue if anything is grayed out.
7. If Windows dialogs are in the wrong language, change Windows' display language too.

Language option grayed out: policies

If the Display option is grayed out, or Edge shows "Your browser is managed by your organization", a policy may be setting the interface language. Open edge://policy and look for ApplicationLocaleValue, the policy that fixes Edge's display language on Windows. Spell check languages can be controlled by SpellcheckLanguage and related policies.

On a work or school PC, these are deliberate, and IT can change them for you if there is a good reason, such as accessibility or your working language. On a personal PC, a policy usually comes from software or an old work enrollment; our guide to removing "Managed by your organization" traces where it came from and how to remove it.

Installing Edge in a specific language

Edge's installers include every interface language; there is no separate English or Portuguese download. If you are installing Edge for someone and want it in a particular language from the first launch, set Windows' display language first, or install and then change the language as above before handing the PC over. Our guide to the Edge offline installer covers the installation side.

For several PCs, the ApplicationLocaleValue policy sets the language automatically, which saves visiting each machine. For a single gift or family PC, the simplest order is: set Windows' display language during Windows setup, sign in, then open Edge for the first time. Edge picks up Windows' language on that first run, and everything matches without any extra steps. If Edge was opened before Windows' language was changed, use the Languages page once and it will stay set from then on, through updates and restarts.

Shared PCs: different languages for different people

Families and offices with people who speak different languages can give everyone their own Edge language without conflict. Two approaches work.

• Separate Windows accounts. Each account can have its own Windows display language and its own Edge language. This is the cleanest option and keeps files, passwords and history separate too.
• Separate Edge profiles on one Windows account. Each Edge profile has its own language setting, favorites and passwords. Switch profiles from the profile picture at the top left.

Either way, nobody has to change the language back and forth, and a grandparent can have Edge in their first language while the rest of the family uses another.

The new tab page and news in the wrong language

Edge's new tab page can show a news feed and suggestions from Microsoft's content service, and that content has its own language and region setting, separate from Edge's menus. If the menus are English but the news on new tabs is in another language, click the gear icon on the new tab page and look for the language and content options, then choose your language and region. If you do not want news there at all, the same panel lets you switch content off, which our guide to turning off the news feed in Edge covers.

Microsoft services you sign in to, such as Bing, Outlook on the web and your Microsoft account pages, take their language from your Microsoft account's region and language settings. If those are wrong, change them once in your account settings and they follow you to every browser and device.

Read Aloud in the right voice

Edge's Read Aloud feature, started with Ctrl + Shift + U or from the three-dot menu, reads web pages and PDFs aloud. It chooses a voice that matches the page's language, and it works best when the matching language is installed. If Read Aloud reads an English page with a foreign accent, or garbles a page in another language, open the Read Aloud toolbar's Voice options and pick a voice for the right language and region. Natural-sounding voices are available for many languages. For the wider Windows speech settings, including Narrator's voice, our guide to changing the default voice walks through it.

Language codes, for settings and policies

Language codes appear in Edge policies, website addresses and some settings. The common ones:

The part before the hyphen is the language; the part after is the region. Websites sometimes accept a language in their address, such as hl=en on Google, which is a handy one-off way to see a page in English without changing any settings.

A work laptop from an office in another country

Employees who receive laptops configured by an overseas head office often get Windows and Edge in that office's language. On a managed work laptop, you can usually change Edge's display language yourself, unless the ApplicationLocaleValue policy fixes it; in that case, ask IT, who can make an exception or set a recommended value instead. Windows' own display language may also be restricted on managed devices. Explain the business reason, such as reading documents accurately or accessibility, and most IT teams will help; it is a common request in multinational companies.

For IT admins: setting Edge's language across a fleet

Set the interface language. The ApplicationLocaleValue policy sets Edge's display language on Windows, using a locale code such as en-US or pt-PT. Deploy it through Group Policy (Microsoft Edge administrative templates), Intune's settings catalog, or the registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge. Users cannot override it while it is set.

Prefer recommended settings for multilingual offices. In offices with staff working in several languages, set language-related policies as recommended rather than mandatory, so Edge starts in the company language but users can change it.

Spell check and translation. Policies such as SpellcheckLanguage, SpellcheckEnabled and TranslateEnabled control spelling languages and Microsoft Translator. Organizations with confidentiality rules sometimes disable automatic translation of internal sites, since translation sends page content to Microsoft's service.

Verify. On a pilot PC, edge://policy should list the policy with status OK, and edge://settings/languages should show the option managed.

Microsoft Edge language: frequently asked questions

Ethan's grandfather now keeps a sticky note on the laptop lid with one line on it: edge://settings/languages. He has not needed it since, but he likes knowing it is there. The laptop still has a little of Lisbon in it: Jake left Portuguese in the Preferred languages list, below English, so Edge would not offer to translate the emails his cousins send. It is a nice illustration of how the two settings work together. Edge's own language is the one you read its menus in. The list underneath is every language you read, in the order you prefer them. Set both deliberately, and the browser speaks to you the way you want.

Revision note. Written October 2, 2026, rewriting our 2020 fix for today's Edge on every platform. May your browser always speak your language.