Set Your Site’s Language and Timezone

The Language setting controls your site’s default language, including built-in buttons and comments form fields. Setting your site’s Timezone ensures scheduled posts and pages are published at your desired time.

The Language setting controls your site’s default language as seen by the public. It sets the language used for certain text elements of your site that you cannot edit directly, e.g., the comments form and some built-in buttons.

Each site has its own language setting, so if you have multiple sites associated with your account, each one can have a different language.

Note that the language setting will not translate the text you have written on your site. If your goal is to translate the language of your site’s content, or to add an option for visitors to switch the site’s language, please review our guide for creating a multilingual site.

If you select an RTL language (for example, Hebrew), the theme’s layout will mirror itself so that the text can be read properly from right to left.

To set your site’s language:

1. Visit your WordPress.com dashboard.
2. Navigate to Settings → General.
3. Click the “Language” option and select the language you want your site to be displayed in.
4. Click the “Save Settings” button.

You can help translate WordPress.com themes into more than 100 languages. Learn how to get started on our translation portal site.

You can also change your Interface Language, which is the language used for your WordPress.com dashboard (not visible to the public.) This is a separate setting from your site’s language.

Set your site’s timezone to the timezone you are based in to ensure scheduled posts and pages are published at your desired time. Using the dropdown, you can select your closest city or choose a specific UTC offset.

To set your site’s timezone:

1. Visit your WordPress.com dashboard.
2. Navigate to Settings → General.
3. Locate the “Timezone” section.
4. Select either your closest city, or choose a specific UTC offset, from the drop-down list.
5. Click the “Save Settings” button.

To set your site’s date and time format:

1. Visit your WordPress.com dashboard.
2. Navigate to Settings → General.
3. Locate the following sections grouped together:
   • Date format: how dates appear on your website.
   • Time format: how times appear on your website.
   • Week starts on: which day the week begins in calendar views.
4. Click the “Save Settings” button at the top to apply the new format for all dates displayed on your site

To create a custom time or date format for your site, visit the WordPress.org guide to formatting date and time.