Skip to content
ToolQivo

Language Detector

Work out what language a piece of text is written in.

Text Tools Reviews Free · no sign-up

Detection runs entirely in your browser from bundled word lists and character patterns — nothing is transmitted.

—

Language Score Evidence

Quick Tool Overview

The Language Detector identifies the script first, then scores the text against the function words and letter patterns of around thirty languages. Confidence scores and the runners-up are both shown, because closely related languages genuinely are hard to tell apart in a short sample.

What it does
Identifies what language a text is written in
You give it
A passage of text, ideally twenty words or more
You get back
The most likely language, with alternatives and scores
Best for
Sorting mixed content and identifying unknown text
Text Tools Free, unlimited use No sign-up Runs in your browser

About the Language Detector

Identifying a language from text is a two-stage problem. Script narrows it enormously — Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Devanagari, Thai and the CJK scripts each point at a small set of candidates. Within the Latin script, which covers most of Europe and much else, the work is done by function words and character patterns.

This detector does both. It identifies the script, then scores the text against the most common function words of around thirty languages and against their characteristic letter combinations — the Portuguese "ão", the Polish "sz", the German "sch". Results come with confidence scores and the runners-up, because closely related languages genuinely are hard to tell apart in a short sample, and a tool that hides that is lying to you.

Key features of the Language Detector

Script detection first

Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Devanagari, Thai and CJK each narrow the field enormously before word scoring begins.

Function word scoring

The small words a language cannot avoid are the strongest signal within the Latin script.

Alternatives shown

Spanish and Portuguese, Czech and Slovak, Danish and Norwegian are genuinely close — hiding that would be dishonest.

Evidence displayed

The words that drove the decision are listed, so the answer can be checked rather than trusted.

Entirely offline

Word lists and patterns are bundled with the page and nothing is transmitted.

How to use the Language Detector

  1. 1

    Paste your text

    Twenty words or more gives a much more reliable answer than a phrase.

  2. 2

    Read the detection

    The most likely language with a confidence score.

  3. 3

    Check the alternatives

    The runners-up are listed, which matters for closely related languages.

  4. 4

    Look at the evidence

    The script detected and the words that drove the decision are shown.

Frequently asked questions

Twenty words or more for a confident answer. A single phrase is often genuinely ambiguous — "no" is a word in English, Spanish, Italian and Polish, and no amount of cleverness can resolve that from context that is not there.

Reviews of the Language Detector

What people who use the Language Detector think of it. Reviews come from visitors and are posted as written.

No ratings yet

Yours would be the first.

  • 5 0 reviews rated 5 stars
  • 4 0 reviews rated 4 stars
  • 3 0 reviews rated 3 stars
  • 2 0 reviews rated 2 stars
  • 1 0 reviews rated 1 star

Write a review

Used this tool? Your rating helps the next person decide.

Your rating

Plain text only — links, email addresses and HTML are not accepted. Your name and review are shown publicly; nothing else is collected. See the privacy policy.

0 reviews

Newest first

No reviews yet

Be the first to rate the Language Detector. It takes half a minute and no account.

Write the first review

More text tools