# Don't translate interpolation keys
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/dont-translate-interpolation-keys/79472
**Category:** Translations
**Created:** [January 31, 2018, 5:09pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dont-translate-interpolation-keys/79472 "2018-01-31T17:09:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@neil](https://meta.discourse.org/u/neil)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2018, 5:09pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dont-translate-interpolation-keys/79472/1 "2018-01-31T17:09:48Z")
This is a friendly reminder that variables in the english strings should not be translated since they will break the translations and break the build.
This is currently a problem in the **[Urdu](https://www.transifex.com/discourse/discourse-org/translate/#ur/clientenyml/51715770?key=thousands)** translations. One example:
Anyone on the Urdu team, can you please spread the word?
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### Author:  [@neil](https://meta.discourse.org/u/neil)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2018, 5:10pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dont-translate-interpolation-keys/79472/2 "2018-01-31T17:10:09Z")
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### Author:  [@icaria36](https://meta.discourse.org/u/icaria36)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2018, 9:02am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dont-translate-interpolation-keys/79472/3 "2018-02-02T09:02:28Z")
Is there a way to declare these variables as such, so Transifex doesn’t even allow their translation?
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### Author:  [@neil](https://meta.discourse.org/u/neil)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2018, 2:38pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dont-translate-interpolation-keys/79472/4 "2018-02-02T14:38:28Z")
That would be ideal. I don’t know of a way to do that in Transifex.
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### Author:  [@gerhard](https://meta.discourse.org/u/gerhard)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2018, 2:45pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dont-translate-interpolation-keys/79472/5 "2018-02-02T14:45:37Z")
Unless you enable “raw editor mode”, Transifex detects `%{placeholder}`, but unfortunately not `{{placeholder}}`. I have no idea why we use different placeholder formats. 🤔
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### Author:  [@zogstrip](https://meta.discourse.org/u/zogstrip)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2018, 9:58pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dont-translate-interpolation-keys/79472/6 "2018-02-02T21:58:20Z")
Maybe we should enforce this? Or automatically replace with the format recognized by Transifex?
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### Author:  [@gerhard](https://meta.discourse.org/u/gerhard)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2018, 4:35pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dont-translate-interpolation-keys/79472/7 "2018-03-26T16:35:09Z")
And please do not replace the percent sign ( `%` ) with a translated version such as `٪`
Transifex allows you to insert the placeholder into your translation by clicking on the placeholder (e. g. `%{count}` in the following example.
* * *
The Urdu translations currently have that problem.
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### Author:  [@gerhard](https://meta.discourse.org/u/gerhard)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2018, 9:03am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dont-translate-interpolation-keys/79472/8 "2018-08-22T09:03:39Z")
Transifex has this nice little feature called [Translation Checks](https://docs.transifex.com/setup/setting-translation-checks) – we just didn’t know about it.
Well, I configured it today, so there shouldn’t be any problems with missing or translated interpolation keys anymore. You will see an error message when you try to save an invalid translation.
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### Author:  [@gerhard](https://meta.discourse.org/u/gerhard)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2018, 9:04am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dont-translate-interpolation-keys/79472/9 "2018-08-22T09:04:00Z")