In some cases, you might not like how the AI translates a specific word/phrase. Or, you might not want to translate your brand name. In such cases, you can use the Glossary feature.
The Glossary feature affects only future AI Translations. You will need to re-translate the resources in question to update/change the translation according to your new rules.
Learn more about:
You can find the glossary under the Glossary tab in the main menu of T Lab:
or you can also find it in the Translations tab, in the top-right corner:
To add a new glossary rule, simply click the Add new button:
🚫 How to never translate a word/phrase
This rule ensures that a word or phrase is never translated — it stays exactly as entered in the original language across all languages.
✅ When to Use:
Brand names or trademarks that shouldn’t be localized
Product codes, serial numbers, or model names
Legal disclaimers or registered terms
Personal names, company names, or location names
Any content that would lose meaning if translated
Press on the "add new" button and make sure you select the "Phrase type" as "Never translate".
That will create your new Glossary rule which will instruct the AI to never translate your phrase and keep it the same in translation.
🧠 Pro Tips:
Never Translate is case-sensitive, so "BMW" and "bmw" are treated differently.
Avoid using it in longer sentences — it's best for short, fixed terms.
🔁 How to always translate a word/phrase in a certain way
This rule allows you to define exact translations for each target language. It's especially useful when you want to:
Maintain brand voice
Ensure accuracy for technical or legal terms
Avoid machine translation errors
Control SEO keyword consistency
✅ When to Use:
Your brand or product names vary per language
You have key SEO phrases that need precise translations
Machine translations get the meaning wrong
You want to avoid cultural misinterpretations
It's not uncommon for the AI to use different formality when translating some words, or you could also prefer a certain way of translating something.
Let's take an example with such a simple word as Hello in German.
Both Guten Tag and Hallo would be a correct translation, depending on whether you would want to have a more informal or formal way of phrasing this.
Context | Translation |
Formal (e.g., customer support, B2B) | Guten Tag |
Informal (e.g., for a young audience, casual products) | Hallo |
For example, Google will translate it in the more friendly (informal) way - Hallo
You can also create a Glossary rule and instruct the AI to always translate Hello into Guten Tag instead
That's all! Now, for any future AI translations, our app will not pass Hello to the AI for translation, but will rather use this predefined dictionary to output your preferred way of translating this.
🧠 Pro Tips:
You can add multi-word terms and even product titles.
Glossary terms are case-sensitive — “Apple” (the brand) vs. “apple” (the fruit).
Works best when used before starting your first translation task, otherwise, you have to re-translate to overwrite the existing translations.
🧠 How it works
Note, that the glossary rules are case-sensitive, so you might want to add multiple rules if you have the same word phrases throughout the website starting with both upper and lower case letters.
If you have multiple cases of the same word, with both capital and non-capital letters, you will need to add each instance of it.
e.g.: if we have both Translation Lab, translation lab & TRANSLATION LAB occurring as texts across the store, we would need to add each instance of that word/phrase:
Keep in mind that leaving a Glossary row empty for a language, that means the AI will translate it!
If a row is left without a value, the app will consider that it's intended to be translated automatically by the AI.
🎯 Glossary Best Practices
✅ Use Translate As for terms that change per language and need control.
✅ Use Never Translate for fixed identifiers that should remain untouched.
🧩 Avoid overlapping glossary entries — e.g., don’t create both
"Shop"and"Shop Now"if they conflict.🛠 Custom Translations vs. Glossary:
Glossary works at translation time (i.e., part of the text that goes through translation).
Custom Translations work after translation, modifying visible text on your storefront.
🧪 Common Pitfalls to Avoid
⚠ Overlapping rules: Don’t create "Pro" and "Pro Max" as separate terms if both appear in product names. Instead, use the longer phrase only.
⚠ Using Never Translate on full sentences: This can break sentence flow and result in awkward output.
⚠ Relying solely on Glossary for SEO: Use it as a helper, but fine-tune your translations directly for best keyword placement.