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How to Cite a Source in Another Language

Keep the title in the language you read it in, add an English translation in square brackets when your readers need one, and transliterate anything that is not in the Latin alphabet. That sentence covers most of what APA Style 7th edition, the MLA Style Center and MLA Handbook, 9th edition, and The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition (citation guide) ask of a non-English source; the rest is capitalization, translator credits, and what to do when you quote. This guide is for a source you read in its original language. If you read an English translation, the translator, the original year, and the dual-date rules are in how to cite a reprinted or translated work.

By 18 min read

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Quick Answer: keep the original title, add a translation in brackets

All three styles cite the work you actually used, in the language you used it in. The author, title, publisher, and journal name stay as printed (transliterated if the script is not Latin); the connecting words of the citation ("Translated by," "trans.," "vol.," "no.," month names) stay in English. APA 7 requires an English translation of the title in square brackets after the original; MLA 9 makes the bracketed translation optional; Chicago 18 adds one when readers are unlikely to understand the original. The in-text citation is the ordinary one for your style and does not change because the source is in French or Japanese.

Templates for a book you read in another language

APA 7 reference:

Author, A. A. (Year). Title in the original language [English translation of the title]. Publisher.

APA 7 in-text:

(Author, Year) or (Author, Year, p. 12)

MLA 9 works cited:

Author Last, Author First. Title in the Original Language [Optional English Translation]. Publisher, Year.

MLA 9 in-text:

(Author 12)

Chicago 18 note:

1. Author First Last, Title in the original language [English translation of the title] (Publisher, Year), 12.

Chicago 18 bibliography:

Author Last, Author First. Title in the original language [English translation of the title]. Publisher, Year.

Chicago 18 author-date in-text:

(Author Year, 12)

Four decisions before you format

  1. Which version did you read? The original-language edition is cited with this guide. A published English translation is cited as a translated work, with the translator's name and, in APA, the original year; that is the reprinted and translated works guide.
  2. Is the title in the Latin alphabet? French, Spanish, German, Turkish, and Vietnamese titles are copied as they appear, accents included. Russian, Greek, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Hindi titles are transliterated (romanized) in all three styles; MLA and Chicago also let you keep the original script when your readers can use it.
  3. Will your readers understand the title? APA always wants the bracketed translation. MLA and Chicago want it when the audience needs it, which for a general English-language readership is almost always.
  4. Are you quoting? Quoted words in another language raise a separate question: quote the original, use a published translation, or translate it yourself. The last section covers all three.

Capitalizing a title in another language

The most common error in a foreign-language citation is applying English headline capitalization to a French or Spanish title. Every style capitalizes a non-English title by that language's own conventions, which for most European languages means capitalizing only the first word, the first word of a subtitle, and proper nouns. German additionally capitalizes every noun. APA's sentence case already works this way for all titles; MLA 9 gives language-by-language rules; Chicago 18 says to use sentence-style capitalization for titles in languages other than English. The bracketed English translation follows the style's normal rule for English: sentence case in APA and Chicago, headline style in MLA.

One French book title and one Spanish journal name, capitalized in each style.
ElementAPA 7MLA 9Chicago 18
French book titleLes rivières invisibles: Histoire de l'eau urbaineLes rivières invisibles: Histoire de l'eau urbaineLes rivières invisibles: Histoire de l'eau urbaine
Bracketed translation[The invisible rivers: A history of urban water][The Invisible Rivers: A History of Urban Water][The invisible rivers: A history of urban water]
Spanish journal nameRevista de Estudios Urbanos (title case, as APA styles all journal names)Revista de estudios urbanos (Spanish rule applies to the journal too)Revista de estudios urbanos (sentence-style)
German book titleDie unsichtbaren Flüsse: Eine Geschichte des städtischen WassersDie unsichtbaren Flüsse: Eine Geschichte des städtischen WassersDie unsichtbaren Flüsse: Eine Geschichte des städtischen Wassers

Keep every accent, umlaut, and cedilla. If your word processor strips them, paste the title from the source and fix the characters with a special-characters tool rather than dropping them.

APA 7: original title, bracketed translation

APA's rule for a work in another language is to give the title as it appears, in sentence case and italic where a title would normally be italic, followed by an English translation in square brackets that is not italic. The elements of reference list entries page states the bracket rule; the Publication Manual applies it in the book and journal examples of chapter 10. The publisher's name stays as printed. The in-text citation is the usual author-date form. Our APA book guide covers the parts that do not change.

APA 7, book in another language (Publication Manual, 7th ed., §10.2)

Reference:

Piaget, J., & Inhelder, B. (1966). La psychologie de l'enfant [The psychology of the child]. Quadrige.

Parenthetical:

(Piaget & Inhelder, 1966)

Narrative:

Piaget and Inhelder (1966)

APA 7, the same pattern on an invented French monograph

Reference:

Marchand, É. (2019). Les rivières invisibles: Histoire de l'eau urbaine [The invisible rivers: A history of urban water]. Éditions du Fleuve.

Parenthetical with a page:

(Marchand, 2019, p. 42)

Journal article in another language

The article title gets the bracketed translation. The journal name does not; it stays in its own language, italic, in title case as APA styles every periodical name. Add the DOI when there is one. The APA journal article examples page shows the surrounding pattern, and the Publication Manual's own Spanish-language example is the model below.

APA 7, journal article in another language (Publication Manual, 7th ed., §10.1)

Reference:

Chaves-Morillo, V., Gómez-Calero, C., Fernández-Muñoz, J. J., Toledano-Muñoz, A., Fernández-Huete, J., Martínez-Monge, N., Palacios-Ceña, D., & Peñacoba-Puente, C. (2018). La anosmia neurosensorial: Relación entre subtipo, tiempo de reconocimiento y edad [Sensorineural anosmia: Relationship between subtype, recognition time, and age]. Clínica y Salud, 28(3), 155–161. https://doi.org/10.5093/clysa2018a25

Parenthetical:

(Chaves-Morillo et al., 2018)

Invented example without a DOI:

García-Reyes, M. (2021). Ciudades sin río: El olvido del agua urbana [Cities without a river: Forgetting urban water]. Revista de Estudios Urbanos, 12(3), 45–67.

Non-Latin scripts: transliterate, then translate

For a title in Cyrillic, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or another non-Latin script, APA transliterates the title (and the author's and publisher's names) into the Latin alphabet, then adds the bracketed English translation. The manual's examples are romanized only; if your instructor or journal also wants the original script, add it after the romanization, but do not replace the romanization with it. Use one recognized system consistently: Hepburn for Japanese, Pinyin for Chinese, Revised Romanization for Korean, and the Library of Congress tables for Russian and Arabic.

APA 7, Japanese novel read in the original

Reference:

Murakami, H. (2002). Umibe no Kafuka [Kafka on the shore]. Shinchōsha.

Parenthetical:

(Murakami, 2002)

Invented Russian monograph:

Petrova, N. V. (2018). Gorodskaya pamyat': Reki i ulitsy Peterburga [Urban memory: The rivers and streets of Petersburg]. Nauka.

MLA 9: original title, optional translation

MLA cites the source in its own language, capitalized by that language's rules, and lets you add an English translation of the title in square brackets after it when readers need one. The publisher stays as printed; "UP" is used only for English-language university presses. The in-text citation is unchanged: author and page. The MLA works-cited quick guide and our MLA book guide cover the container pattern that the examples below follow.

MLA 9, French monograph read in the original

Works cited, with the optional translation:

Marchand, Élodie. Les rivières invisibles: Histoire de l'eau urbaine [The Invisible Rivers: A History of Urban Water]. Éditions du Fleuve, 2019.

Works cited, without it:

Marchand, Élodie. Les rivières invisibles: Histoire de l'eau urbaine. Éditions du Fleuve, 2019.

In-text:

(Marchand 42)

Journal article

MLA 9, Spanish journal article

Works cited:

García-Reyes, Marta. "Ciudades sin río: El olvido del agua urbana." Revista de estudios urbanos, vol. 12, no. 3, 2021, pp. 45–67.

In-text:

(García-Reyes 52)

Non-Latin scripts and family-first names

MLA accepts either the original script or a transliteration, chosen for the audience: a paper for readers of Japanese may keep 海辺のカフカ, while a paper for a general readership romanizes it. Whichever you choose, use it consistently for every source in that language. Names that are written family name first in the original (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Hungarian) are given in that order without an inverting comma when you cite the original-language edition; if you are citing an English edition that prints the name Western-style, invert it as usual with a comma.

MLA 9, Japanese novel read in the original

Works cited:

Murakami Haruki. Umibe no Kafuka [Kafka on the Shore]. Shinchōsha, 2002.

In-text:

(Murakami 34)

Chicago 18: bracketed translation, sentence-style capitals, trans.

Chicago's rule, unchanged from CMOS 17 §14.99 into the 18th edition, is that an English translation of a title, when needed, follows the original in square brackets, without italics or quotation marks, and is capitalized sentence-style regardless of how the original is capitalized. The original itself takes sentence-style capitalization too, in italics for a book and in quotation marks for an article. Translator credits use trans. in notes and Translated by in the bibliography. The Notes and Bibliography guide and our Chicago book guide show the surrounding forms.

Chicago 18 notes-bibliography, French monograph

First note:

1. Élodie Marchand, Les rivières invisibles: Histoire de l'eau urbaine [The invisible rivers: A history of urban water] (Éditions du Fleuve, 2019), 42.

Shortened note:

2. Marchand, Rivières invisibles, 57.

Bibliography:

Marchand, Élodie. Les rivières invisibles: Histoire de l'eau urbaine [The invisible rivers: A history of urban water]. Éditions du Fleuve, 2019.

Journal article

For an article the bracketed translation follows the closing quotation mark of the title, and the comma or period that would normally sit inside the quotation marks moves to after the bracket.

Chicago 18, Spanish journal article

Note:

3. Marta García-Reyes, "Ciudades sin río: El olvido del agua urbana" [Cities without a river: Forgetting urban water], Revista de estudios urbanos 12, no. 3 (2021): 52.

Bibliography:

García-Reyes, Marta. "Ciudades sin río: El olvido del agua urbana" [Cities without a river: Forgetting urban water]. Revista de estudios urbanos 12, no. 3 (2021): 45–67.

Non-Latin scripts

Chicago romanizes by default and allows the original script to be added after the romanized title when readers will use it. Personal names keep the order of the original language, so a Japanese or Chinese author cited from an original-language edition is not inverted and takes no comma in the bibliography, exactly as in Chicago's own example of Liu Xinwu.

Chicago 18, Japanese novel read in the original

Note:

4. Murakami Haruki, Umibe no Kafuka [Kafka on the shore] (Shinchōsha, 2002), 34.

Bibliography:

Murakami Haruki. Umibe no Kafuka [Kafka on the shore]. Shinchōsha, 2002.

With the original script added:

Murakami Haruki. Umibe no Kafuka 海辺のカフカ [Kafka on the shore]. Shinchōsha, 2002.

Author-date

Chicago 18 author-date, the same French monograph

Reference list:

Marchand, Élodie. 2019. Les rivières invisibles: Histoire de l'eau urbaine [The invisible rivers: A history of urban water]. Éditions du Fleuve.

In-text:

(Marchand 2019, 42)

If you read a translation instead

The moment you cite an English edition, the entry changes shape: the title is the English one, the translator is credited, and APA adds the original year at the end of the reference and in every in-text citation. MLA writes Translated by before the publisher; Chicago writes trans. in notes and Translated by in the bibliography. The APA blog on translated works and our reprinted and translated works guide cover the variants; the example below is here only so the two forms sit side by side.

The same book read in English, three styles

APA 7 reference:

Piaget, J., & Inhelder, B. (1969). The psychology of the child (H. Weaver, Trans.). Basic Books. (Original work published 1966)

APA 7 in-text:

(Piaget & Inhelder, 1966/1969)

MLA 9 works cited:

Piaget, Jean, and Bärbel Inhelder. The Psychology of the Child. Translated by Helen Weaver, Basic Books, 1969.

MLA 9 in-text:

(Piaget and Inhelder 12)

Chicago 18 first note:

5. Jean Piaget and Bärbel Inhelder, The Psychology of the Child, trans. Helen Weaver (Basic Books, 1969), 12.

Chicago 18 bibliography:

Piaget, Jean, and Bärbel Inhelder. The Psychology of the Child. Translated by Helen Weaver. Basic Books, 1969.

Quick comparison

What each style does with a source you read in another language.
ElementAPA 7MLA 9Chicago 18
Original titleKept, sentence caseKept, capitalized by the language's rulesKept, sentence-style
English translation of the titleRequired, in square brackets, roman, sentence caseOptional, in square brackets, headline styleWhen needed, in square brackets, roman, sentence-style
Non-Latin scriptTransliterateTransliterate or keep the script; be consistentTransliterate; original script may follow
Family-first namesSurname, then initials: Murakami, H.As in the original, no comma: Murakami HarukiAs in the original, no comma: Murakami Haruki
Journal nameOriginal language, title caseOriginal language, that language's rulesOriginal language, sentence-style
Translator of an edition you read(H. Weaver, Trans.) after the title, plus (Original work published 1966)Translated by Helen Weaver, before the publishertrans. Helen Weaver in notes; Translated by Helen Weaver in the bibliography
In-text citation(Marchand, 2019, p. 42)(Marchand 42)Note with page; (Marchand 2019, 42) in author-date

Quoting: the original, a published translation, or your own

Quoting from a source in another language forces one more decision. If the wording itself matters (literary, linguistic, or legal analysis), quote the original and supply a translation so every reader can follow. If only the content matters, translate and cite. If a published English translation exists, prefer it: quote that edition and cite it as a translated work, because a published translation is a checkable source and your own is not. When you do translate yourself, the styles differ on how to say so.

APA 7

Your own translation is treated as a paraphrase, not a quotation: no quotation marks, and a citation with the author, year, and page. APA does not require the words "my translation," because the translation is your wording; you may say so in the sentence if it helps. Quote the original only if it is essential, and then give the translation in brackets after it.

MLA 9

Quote the original in quotation marks, then give your translation in parentheses in quotation marks, followed by the page and my trans., all inside one set of parentheses and separated by semicolons. If you give only the translation, still add my trans. to the parenthetical so the reader knows the English is yours.

Chicago 18

Quote the original and follow it with the translation in parentheses or square brackets, or give the translation alone. Credit yourself in the note with my translation (or translation mine) after the page; in author-date, add it inside the parenthetical after a semicolon.

One French sentence, translated by you, in three styles

Source sentence (Marchand, p. 42):

Les rivières ne disparaissent pas, elles apprennent à se taire.

APA 7 (as a paraphrase):

Marchand (2019) wrote that rivers do not disappear but learn to fall silent (p. 42).

MLA 9 (original plus translation):

Marchand writes that "les rivières ne disparaissent pas, elles apprennent à se taire" ("rivers do not disappear; they learn to fall silent"; 42; my trans.).

MLA 9 (translation only):

Marchand writes that rivers "learn to fall silent" (42; my trans.).

Chicago 18 sentence:

Marchand writes that "les rivières ne disparaissent pas, elles apprennent à se taire" (rivers do not disappear; they learn to fall silent).6

Chicago 18 note:

6. Marchand, Rivières invisibles, 42 (my translation).

Chicago 18 author-date:

(Marchand 2019, 42; my translation)

Names in non-Latin scripts

Romanize names with the same system you used for the title, and spell each author the same way in every citation and in the text. Do not translate a name, and do not reorder it to look Western unless the edition you are citing already printed it that way. APA reduces given names to initials whatever the order, so the family name is the only part a reader sees; MLA and Chicago keep the full name and the original order. A single author who publishes under different romanizations (Pekin/Beijing-era spellings, for example) is cited as spelled on the work you used, with the other form in brackets only if readers would otherwise fail to connect them.

One author from each script as the name appears in the reference list or bibliography.
As printedAPA 7MLA 9Chicago 18
村上春樹 (Japanese, family name first)Murakami, H.Murakami HarukiMurakami Haruki
王丽华 (Chinese, family name first)Wang, L.Wang LihuaWang Lihua
Нина Владимировна Петрова (Russian, given names first)Petrova, N. V.Petrova, Nina VladimirovnaPetrova, Nina Vladimirovna
김민지 (Korean, family name first)Kim, M.Kim Min-jiKim Min-ji

Common mistakes

  • Translating the title and dropping the original. The reader must be able to find the book under the title it was published with.
  • Italicizing or quoting the bracketed translation. In all three styles it is plain roman text in square brackets.
  • Capitalizing Les Rivières Invisibles headline-style. French, Spanish, and Italian titles capitalize the first word and proper nouns only.
  • Lowercasing German nouns to make a title look like sentence case. Die unsichtbaren Flüsse keeps every noun capitalized in every style.
  • Translating the publisher or the journal name. Éditions du Fleuve and Revista de estudios urbanos stay as printed.
  • Inverting a Japanese or Chinese name that the original prints family-first, or adding a comma to it in MLA or Chicago.
  • Mixing romanization systems, so the same author is Wade–Giles in one entry and Pinyin in the next.
  • Putting your own translation inside quotation marks in APA. APA treats it as a paraphrase.
  • Forgetting my trans. in MLA or my translation in Chicago when the English words are yours.
  • Citing a foreign-language original when you actually read the English edition. Cite the translation and credit the translator; see the reprinted and translated works guide.

Before you submit

  • The title is in the language I read, with its accents, capitalized by that language's rules.
  • The bracketed English translation is present where my style requires or recommends it, in roman type.
  • Any non-Latin script is romanized consistently, with the original script added only if my readers need it.
  • Author names keep their original order and spelling in every citation.
  • Publisher and journal names are untranslated; connecting words (trans., vol., no., months) are in English.
  • Every quotation in another language has a translation, and my own translations are marked the way my style marks them.
  • If I read an English translation, I have switched to the translated-work form instead.

Frequently asked questions

Do I translate the title of a foreign-language source?
Keep the original title and add an English translation in square brackets after it. APA 7 requires the bracketed translation; MLA 9 treats it as optional; Chicago 18 adds it when readers are unlikely to understand the original. The translation is never italicized or put in quotation marks, and the original title is never replaced by it.
How do I cite a source written in Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or Arabic?
Transliterate the title and names into the Latin alphabet with one recognized system, then add the bracketed English translation. APA cites the romanized form only; MLA and Chicago let you add or keep the original script when your readers can use it. Names that are family-first in the original stay family-first without a comma in MLA and Chicago, and become surname plus initials in APA.
How is a foreign title capitalized?
By the rules of its own language, not by English headline style. French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese capitalize the first word, the first word of a subtitle, and proper nouns; German also capitalizes every noun. APA's sentence case and Chicago's sentence-style rule produce that result automatically, and MLA 9 gives explicit rules per language.
What is the difference between citing the original and citing a translation?
Cite whichever edition you read. An original-language edition follows this guide: original title plus a bracketed translation. A published English translation is cited as a translated work, with the translator's name (APA: (H. Weaver, Trans.); MLA: Translated by Helen Weaver; Chicago: trans. Helen Weaver) and, in APA, the original year in both the reference and the in-text citation: (Piaget & Inhelder, 1966/1969).
How do I quote a passage that I translated myself?
APA 7 treats your translation as a paraphrase: no quotation marks, cite author, year, and page. MLA 9 quotes the original and gives your translation in parentheses, followed by the page and my trans., or gives the translation alone with my trans. in the parenthetical. Chicago 18 gives the translation in parentheses or brackets after the original and adds my translation to the note or the author-date parenthetical.
Does the in-text citation change for a non-English source?
No. APA still cites author and year, MLA author and page, and Chicago a note or author-date parenthetical. The only visible difference is the author's name, which is transliterated if necessary and, in MLA and Chicago, kept in its original order.
Should I translate the publisher or the journal name?
No. Publisher and journal names are proper names and stay as printed: Éditions du Fleuve, Shinchōsha, Revista de estudios urbanos. Only the connecting parts of the citation are in English, such as Translated by, trans., vol., no., and month names. Capitalize a journal name by APA's title case or by the language's own rules in MLA and Chicago.
Can I cite a translation I found online instead of the original?
Cite what you read. If you relied on an unofficial online translation, cite that web page as the source, with its translator or site as the author, rather than pretending to have read the original. If you read the original and used a published translation only to check your own reading, cite the original and translate as described above.

Format the original-language entry

Enter the title as printed, with its accents, and add the bracketed translation in the title field; the generator keeps the original and formats the rest for APA, MLA, or Chicago. If you read an English edition, use the translated-book generator so the translator and original year land in the right places.

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