Dynamic Content in Translations: Placeholders Done Right

Static translations are easy:

Welcome to our app

But what about:

Welcome back, John! You have 5 new messages.

That "John" and "5" need to be dynamic. Here's how to do it right.

Laravel Placeholders

Laravel supports two placeholder syntaxes:

Curly braces:

__('messages.greeting', ['name' => $user->name])
// Translation: "Hello, {name}!"

Colon prefix:

__('messages.count', ['count' => $messages])
// Translation: "You have :count new messages"

Both work. Pick one and be consistent.

The Problem with Hardcoding

Don't do this:

"Hello, " . $user->name . "!"

Why? Because in German, the name might go at the end. In Japanese, it might need honorifics. Hardcoding locks you into English word order.

Placeholders with AI Translation

Here's the magic: LangSyncer's AI preserves placeholders automatically.

Source (English):

Hello, {name}! You have {count} new messages.

AI translates to Spanish:

¡Hola, {name}! Tienes {count} mensajes nuevos.

Notice:

• {name} stays as {name} (not {nombre})
• {count} stays as {count} (not {cantidad})
• Word order changed naturally for Spanish

Complex Examples

Pluralization:

{count, plural, =0 {No messages} =1 {One message} other {# messages}}

Dates:

Last updated on {date}

Pass formatted dates from your backend for proper localization.

Multiple placeholders:

{user} invited {invitee} to {project}

Best Practices

1. Use descriptive placeholder names: {userName} not {u}
2. Keep placeholders language-neutral: They're code, not content
3. Document what each placeholder contains: Future translators will thank you
4. Test with long values: "Dr. Alexandra von Rothschild III" might break your UI

The Code Scanner Knows

When you run php artisan translator:scan --ai, the AI detects dynamic content:

Found: "Welcome, John!"

Suggests:

• Key: greeting
• Value: Welcome, {name}!
• Note: Replace John with $name variable

Smart enough to know "John" is a placeholder, not literal text.

Learn more about AI translations →