How do I change the display language on a Mac? I also had to figure out how to change the language on my Mac. After some searching it's quite simple. In this article I will show you step by step how to change the language on a Mac.
Why would you change the display language and does this also affect the display language of the installed applications?
The language set as default in the operating system is also the language in which applications are offered in macOS.
Suppose you install a new app after changing a language on your Mac, then this application will adapt to your new language setting. Applications previously installed will change to the operating system language.
However, this does not apply to all applications, such as macOS system applications and the installed Mac software from the App Store.
Change display language in Mac OS
In the top left corner, open it Apple menu (). In the menu select system preferences.
In the preferences menu on your Mac, open Language and Region to open the language settings on your Mac.
Go ahead and click the + icon to add a display language to Mac OS.
Select your desired new display language from the list and click Add to confirm.
Confirm the new display language on your Mac with Use…
The new display language for Mac is now set as primary. The Region, the start of the week, calendar type, time format and temperature display are still set as Dutch values.
If you find it necessary to change these settings, you can click on the blue icon next to the settings to set a new value.
At the bottom of the Advanced Language Settings you can change language settings such as currency, units of measure, date formats and time formats that match your newly set default language on your Mac.
It is up to everyone to adjust this to their liking, when just changing the display language it is not always necessary to immediately change the advanced region settings.
When you have finished adjusting the language and region settings on your Mac, close the window or click back to the Mac settings overview.
The language and region settings are saved automatically.
macOS will prompt you to restart your Mac to apply the new language and region settings.
I hope this article helped you change the display language and region on your Mac.
To clean up old settings I recommend the article: Speed up and clean up Mac to read. The article shows you how to clean up old language settings and thus keep your Mac fast and organized.