Multi-language surveys

One survey can be offered in several languages at once. You write it in its default language, add the others, and fill in each one yourself or with an AI draft you review. Each respondent reads it in their own language, and every answer lands in the same results, whatever language it was given in.

Add languages

1. Open the survey in the builder and choose the Settings tab.
2. Under Localisation, in Languages, choose each language the survey should be offered in. The list offers every language your workspace has turned on, your own included.
3. Save the survey.

Localisation

Languages

Offer the survey in several languages. Each respondent reads it in theirs; a missing translation shows the default language.

EnglishFrançaisالعربيةNederlandsDeutschEspañolPolski

enEnglishDefault

frFrançaisCheck this · 2Make default

arالعربية3 missing

The language the survey was written in is its Default: its words are the survey's own, and any word missing in another language is shown in the default instead. A new survey starts in the workspace's default language.

To remove a language, click it again. Polzy asks first and says how many texts it holds, because they are deleted with it.

Change the default language

Choose Make default on another language. Before anyone has answered, the swap is immediate. Once there are answers, Polzy asks first: answers already given keep their questions' words in the old default, and new answers store them in the new one. Nothing is deleted either way; the old default's words become one of the survey's languages. The survey's name becomes its name in the new default, in the survey list and in searches too, and the builder's preview shows the survey in it.

Write each language

At the top right of the builder, Display language shows the whole survey in one of its languages; on a phone it is in the ⋯ menu. Choose French, and every text on the page — title, welcome and end screens, questions, options, scale labels, placeholders and buttons — shows its French, ready to edit. Under each field, the default language's text says what it translates.

Bilan d’intégrationDisplay languageFrançaisCheck this · 2Publish

AllMissingCheck this

Translate with AI

AI draft

enHow was your first week?

AI draft

enVery well

Looks right

• Only the words change. In another language you edit text, nothing else. Adding, removing or moving questions, their type, logic, scoring and settings are greyed out: switch back to the default language to change them. Pictures and styling are shared by every language.
• A missing text. A field with nothing written shows the default language's text, greyed, and is counted as missing.
• The preview follows. The preview shows the language on display, right to left for Arabic.

Draft with AI

Translate with AI, at the top of the card on the left of the builder, drafts the whole survey in the language on display: only what is missing, only what needs checking, or everything. Each question has its own, for that question alone. Before anything is sent, Polzy says roughly how many characters and credits it will take. If the credits run out part-way, what was drafted is kept and the rest stays as it was. You can also ask Polzy: "make this survey multilingual in French and Dutch" adds the languages and drafts them in one step, after you approve.

1. Choose Translate with AI and what to draft.
2. Read the estimate and confirm.
3. The drafts fill the fields, each tagged AI draft. They are saved straight away, and respondents see them at once.
4. Read each one. Edit it, and the tag goes; or choose Looks right on a question, or Mark all as reviewed for the whole language.

Polzy keeps text in double braces, such as {{name}}, exactly as written. A draft that loses one is not used: the field stays missing, and the result says how many. Questions from the question bank are sent to the AI only in a language of your own (see below).

Check this

Every language carries its state, on its chip in Languages, in Display language, and on each question while that language is on display:

• Complete. Every text is written and reviewed.
• Missing. How many texts have nothing in this language. Respondents see the default language's words for those.
• Check this. How many texts need a look: an AI draft nobody has reviewed yet, or a translation whose default-language text was changed after it was written. Respondents already see an AI draft; for a changed text, they keep seeing the earlier translation until you change it or choose Looks right.

In the same card, the filter All, Missing, Check this shows only the questions that need work.

When you publish, or save a live survey, while a language has texts missing or to check, Polzy says so — "French: 3 to check, 2 missing" — with Review French to go through them and Publish anyway. It never stops you. A language with nothing translated yet is still offered in the survey's language menu, and whoever picks it reads your default language's words; Polzy says so in so many words — "French has no translations yet".

A language of your own

The six built-in languages are ready in every workspace. From Business, the workspace can add any other language — Polish, Portuguese, Swahili — and a survey then offers it like the six:

1. Open Settings, then Translations, and click Add language: its code, such as pl, its name and its direction. See Add a language.
2. On the same page, translate Polzy's own words into it — the buttons, hints and messages of the survey page — yourself, from a CSV, or with Draft the rest.
3. In the builder, choose it under Languages, then write the survey in it or choose Translate with AI. Drafting works the same for a language you added as for the six.

Language

Add a language

Adds a language to this workspace. Upload a CSV of its wording, or start empty and translate on the page. Other workspaces are not changed.

Language code

Language name

DirectionLeft to right

Expected CSV shape

A key column plus one column per language. First row is the header.

Drop a CSV here, or choose a fileUp to 10 MB. Each key in the file becomes this workspace’s wording.

CancelAdd language

A question from the question bank has no words in a language you added: write them as for any other question. Polzy's own words not yet translated show in English.

Questions from the question bank

A question you added from the question bank and left unchanged already has its words in Polzy's six languages. It shows them in each, tagged From the question bank, read-only: nothing to translate, no credits, and its answers stay comparable with every other survey that asks it. In a language of your own, write its words or translate them with AI, as for any question. A bank question you reworded is your own question and is translated like any other.

On a pulse's survey, the questions its themes bring are listed apart, below your own, under From the question bank. In Polzy's six languages that is one line: they arrive translated. In a language of your own it lists only the ones with something left to translate, folded, with one Translate for all of them. The status at the top counts your questions and the bank's separately. The default ends of an NPS question, “Not at all likely” and “Extremely likely”, are Polzy's own words too: each respondent reads them in their language. Ends you typed yourself are yours to translate.

What respondents see

Each person reads the survey in one of its languages, chosen in this order:

1. The language they picked on the page's language menu, which the survey remembers on that device.
2. The language in their profile, when they were invited by a campaign or are signed in.
3. The language in the link, when it carries one, such as ?lang=fr.
4. Their browser's language.
5. The survey's default language.

When the survey offers more than one language, a language menu at the top of the page lets them switch. The page changes in place, every answer already given is kept, and the survey remembers the choice on that device. A text not written in their language is shown in the default language. Arabic, and any language you added as right to left, reads from right to left.

AAcmeالعربيةEnglishFrançaisالعربية

كيف كان أسبوعك الأول؟

جيد جدًاجيدصعب

The buttons, hints and messages of the page are Polzy's own and come in the respondent's language too. Each response records the language it was answered in. A survey in one language is read in it, its buttons and messages too, whatever the browser's language.

Invitations in each person's language

A campaign sends each person the survey in their own language: the one in their profile, when the survey offers it, and otherwise the survey's default. Their link opens the survey in that language. The built-in invitation and reminder are written in Polzy's six languages, so each person reads them in theirs, with the survey's title in that language too. A template of your own can have a version per language; where it has none, its base text is sent. Before you launch, the review lists how many people read each language.

To hand out a link for one language — on a French poster, say — see Share a survey.

What reports show

Every answer counts in the same results, whatever its language: a choice is stored by the option it picks, not by its words, so "Oui" and "Yes" are one bar. Results show the questions and options in the survey's default language, and the report lists every language the survey is offered in.

Written answers keep the words the person typed, in their language. Where that is not the organization's language, they are read in translation: see Written answers, translated.

Written answers, translated

Comments, “Other” answers and answers to AI follow-up questions written in another language than the organization's default are translated into it once, when they arrive, and kept beside the original, which is never changed. Always into the organization's default language, whichever language the survey was answered in and whoever reads it. An answer that mixes two languages, or has spelling mistakes, is translated for what it means, never corrected: the original keeps every word as typed. Translating uses AI credits.

• Which surveys. A survey offered in several languages always translates its written answers. For a survey in one language, switch on Translate written answers into English — named after your default language — in Settings → General. It is off until somebody switches it on.
• Where you read them. A translated comment shows Answered in French, the translation first and Show original beside it: on Analytics → Comments, the survey's Comments tab, a task raised from it, an insight's quote and the report PDF. Search comments finds it by the words of either. Ask Polzy reasons from the translation and quotes the original, with the translation after it. A response's panel shows Answered in Dutch at its top and reads each written answer the same way, with Show original under it: see Open a response.
• The Language filter. Results and comments can be filtered and grouped by Language, the language a response was given in. Like any group, a language fewer people answered in than the privacy floor is not shown on its own.
• In exports. The comments file has Translation and Language columns. The responses file adds Language, a (translation) and a (language) column beside each open question, and a (translation) column beside each AI follow-ups column. See Responses.
• For your systems. The API and webhooks give a translated answer translated_text, source_language and translated_to, and an endpoint can tick response.translated to hear when a response's answers were translated. See Webhooks.

If the organization's default language changes and written answers were already translated into the old one, you are asked first, with how many answers there are and roughly how many AI credits translating them again costs. Change and translate them translates them into the new language, a few at a time; Change only changes the language and leaves them as they are. An answer not translated into the new language is shown as written, tagged Not translated yet — the same tag a comment carries while its translation is still on its way or waiting for credits.

Translating written answers into your language for reading is planned; until then, Polzy's AI reads them in the language they were written in.

Troubleshooting

• The Languages setting is locked, with a plan name. Multi-language surveys are on Business and up. See change plan. If it names this workspace's settings instead, an Admin switched the capability off for this workspace; see What this workspace does.
• A language is not in the list. The workspace has not turned it on. Add it, or switch it on, on the Translations page. Adding a language is on Business and Enterprise: see A language of your own.
• I cannot add a question while French is on display. The survey's structure is changed in its default language. Switch Display language back.
• Respondents still see the old wording. The translation is marked Check this: they see the earlier text until you change it or choose Looks right.
• Someone got the survey in English. Their profile language is not one the survey offers, so they got the default. Add their language, or ask them to use the language menu.
• Translate with AI says the credits have run out. The organization has used this month's AI credits. The button still works, but the draft fails with a message saying so. Add a credit pack, or write the texts yourself.
• After a plan change, everyone sees the default language. Without the plan, the survey is shown in its default language only. Its translations are kept, and come back with the plan.
• A comment in another language shows no translation. Its survey is in one language and Translate written answers is off, or the plan does not include multi-language surveys. A comment tagged Not translated yet is on its way: if the AI credits ran out, it is translated as soon as they are back. A comment in your default language is never translated.