Laravel localization in Arabic العربية
Everything you need to ship Arabic in a Laravel app: the right locale codes,
the exact plural forms trans_choice() expects,
real localized Carbon output and Arabic-script considerations.
Every value on this page was generated by running ICU, CLDR and Carbon — not copied from another article.
ISO 639-1
ar
Script / Direction
Arabic · RTL
Plural forms (Laravel)
6
Text vs English
Contracts
Locale codes
Set the base locale in config/app.php. For regional variants,
Arabic commonly uses:
ar_SA, ar_EG, ar_AE, ar_MA, ar_DZ
// config/app.php
'locale' => 'ar',
'fallback_locale' => 'en',
// Or switch at runtime
App::setLocale('ar');Plural rules: what Arabic actually needs
CLDR defines 6 cardinal categories for Arabic. The sample numbers below were computed by ICU for this exact locale:
| CLDR category | Numbers that select it |
|---|---|
| zero | 0 |
| one | 1 |
| two | 2 |
| few | 3–10, 103–110 |
| many | 11–99, 111–130 |
| other | 100–102, 200, 1000, 1000000, 1.5 |
Laravel's trans_choice() maps numbers to
6 pipe-separated
forms for this locale:
| Form index | Numbers that select it |
|---|---|
| 0 | 0 |
| 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 |
| 3 | 3–10, 103–110 |
| 4 | 11–99, 111–130 |
| 5 | 100–102, 200, 1000 |
// lang/ar/messages.php
'items' => ':count item|:count items'
// Usage
trans_choice('messages.items', $count, ['count' => $count]);This language uses 6 plural forms. Laravel's built-in trans_choice only resolves two, so for grammatically correct output use an ICU MessageFormat package or handle the extra forms explicitly against the CLDR categories above.
Try any number live in the pluralization tester.
Localized dates with Carbon
Real output for Arabic (ar locale),
generated by Carbon for March 21, 2026:
$date = now()->locale('ar');
$date->translatedFormat('l, j F Y');
// "السبت, 21 مارس 2026"
$date->isoFormat('LLLL');
// "السبت 21 مارس 2026 14:30"
$date->isoFormat('L');
// "21/3/2026"
$date->subDays(3)->diffForHumans();
// "منذ 3 أشهر"What to watch out for in Arabic
- Right-to-left script: mirror layouts, icons with direction, and set dir="rtl" on rendered pages.
- CLDR defines six plural categories (zero, one, two, few, many, other); pluralization strings need all of them.
- Nouns and adjectives are gendered and verbs agree with the subject gender.
- Some regions use Eastern Arabic digits (٠١٢٣) while others use Western digits; number formatting varies by locale.
-
Right-to-left script: set
dir="rtl"on the<html>element and use CSS logical properties (or Tailwind's rtl: variant) instead of left/right.
Framework strings already translated
Laravel's own validation, auth and pagination strings are maintained in Arabic by the open-source Laravel-Lang project (MIT). Install them, then manage your app's own strings live:
composer require laravel-lang/common --dev
php artisan lang:add ar
php artisan lang:updateTranslate your app into Arabic today
Import your lang files, translate every key into Arabic with one AI click, and publish changes live — no deploy. Set up in 5 minutes.