Laravel localization in Greek Ελληνικά

Locale codes

Set the base locale in config/app.php. For regional variants, Greek commonly uses: el_GR, el_CY

// config/app.php
'locale' => 'el',
'fallback_locale' => 'en',

// Or switch at runtime
App::setLocale('el');

Plural rules: what Greek actually needs

CLDR defines 2 cardinal categories for Greek. The sample numbers below were computed by ICU for this exact locale:

Laravel's trans_choice() maps numbers to 2 pipe-separated forms for this locale:

// lang/el/messages.php
'items' => ':count item|:count items'

// Usage
trans_choice('messages.items', $count, ['count' => $count]);

Try any number live in the pluralization tester.

Localized dates with Carbon

Real output for Greek (el locale), generated by Carbon for March 21, 2026:

$date = now()->locale('el');

$date->translatedFormat('l, j F Y');
// "Σάββατο, 21 Μαρτίου 2026"

$date->isoFormat('LLLL');
// "Σάββατο, 21 Μαρτίου 2026 2:30 ΜΜ"

$date->isoFormat('L');
// "21/03/2026"

$date->subDays(3)->diffForHumans();
// "πριν 3 μήνες"

What to watch out for in Greek

• Uses the Greek alphabet; sigma has a distinct final form (ς) used only at word end.
• Three grammatical genders and case declension change noun endings inside sentences.
• The question mark is a semicolon-like character (;), not "?".
• Decimal comma with dot as thousands separator (1.234,56).

Framework strings already translated

Laravel's own validation, auth and pagination strings are maintained in Greek 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 el
php artisan lang:update