Change your Mac's language, or switch it back to English

Why it happens

Your Mac shows its menus and buttons in the first language in the Preferred Languages list. If someone added another language and put it first, or the Mac was set up in another country, everything switches to that language. Most apps follow the same list.

How to fix it

1. Click the Apple menu, the apple at the top-left of the screen, and choose System Settings. If the menus are in a language you can't read, it's the second item in that menu, and the window has a grey gear icon.

2. Click General in the sidebar, then Language & Region. If you can't read the words, General also has a grey gear icon, and Language & Region has a blue globe.

   General›Language & Region›Preferred Languages

3. If your language is already in the Preferred Languages list, drag it to the top. If not, click the + button under the list, choose the language, such as English (UK) or हिन्दी, and click Add.

4. When your Mac asks whether to use the new language as its main one, choose to use it. Then restart when asked, or choose Apple menu > Restart, so every menu and app switches over.

Still not fixed?

1. If one app is still in the old language, it may have its own setting. In Language & Region, look at the Applications section, click +, and pick that app and the language you want. Then reopen the app.

   General›Language & Region›Applications›+

2. If dates, money or the first day of the week look wrong, that's the Region setting, which is separate from language. Change Region on the same page.

   General›Language & Region›Region

3. If your Mac keeps going back to US English when you want British English, make sure English (UK) is at the top of the list, and remove the other English by selecting it and clicking the minus button.

4. If the language changed but your keyboard types the wrong letters, the keyboard layout is a separate setting. Check it under Keyboard, Text Input, Edit….

   Keyboard›Text Input›Edit…

5. If the login window is still in the old language, open Language & Region, click the pop-up menu under Preferred Languages and choose Apply to Login Window. If there's no such menu, the login window already matches.

   General›Language & Region›Apply to Login Window

6. If the language won't stick after a restart, or System Settings won't open to change it, contact Apple Support.