How to prevent content from being translated?

Summary

Translation exclusions let you prevent specific words or word combinations from being translated on your Clone. This is useful for brand names, product names, addresses, or technical values that should always stay the same. In this article, you’ll learn how to add translation exclusions, manage them in bulk, exclude specific JSON or XML fields safely and exclude entire pages from being translated.

FAQ

Can I exclude full sentences from translation?

No. Translation exclusions are meant for single words or short word combinations only.

Is there a limit to how many exclusions I can add?

Yes. This depends on the plan you're subscribed to.

Will exclusions apply immediately?

Yes. Changes take effect automatically on your clone.

⏱️ Reading time: 5–7 minutes

What are translation exclusions?

Translation exclusions ensure that certain words or word combinations are never translated by Clonable.

Common use cases include:

Brand names
Company names
Product names
Addresses
Fixed technical terms

Tip: Use translation exclusions only for short fragments, not full sentences.

Adding translation exclusions

You can manage translation exclusions directly from your Clonable dasboard.

Follow these steps:

Open your Clone in the dashboard.
Go to Translation settings in the side menu.
Open the tab: Translation exclusions.
Use the New exclusion input field.
Enter one or a few words.
Click Add to save.

The entered fragment will no longer be translated anywhere on your clone.

Note: Translation exclusions are not suitable for partial or full sentences.

Bulk import translation exclusions

If you have many words to exclude, bulk import is the fastest option.

This is especially useful for:

Large brand lists
Product catalogs
Technical term lists

How bulk import works

Upload a .txt file
One exclusion per line
Up to 1,000 words per upload
Each line can be up to 128 characters
Maximum of 10,000 exclusions in total

Example file

Adidas
Brabo
Converse
Derbystar
Equalite

Managing lists

When uploading a file:

Give the list a name
This helps you recognize and update it later

If you upload a new file with the same list name, the old list will be completely replaced by the new one.

Deleting a bulk exclusion list

To delete an existing list:

Create an empty text file
Upload it using the same list name

This will remove the entire exclusion list at once.

Excluding JSON or XML fields

Some JSON or XML fields should never be translated, as this may break applications or integrations.

Typical examples:

Status fields
Error codes
Constant values

You can exclude these fields by using:

json.fieldname
xml.fieldname

JSON example

API endpoint:

https://example.nl/api/action

Response:

{
  "status": "failure",
  "error_code": "upstream_failed",
  "error_message": "Something went wrong. Try again later."
}

To prevent translation issues:

Add json.status
Add json.error_code

The error_message field will still be translated, while the technical fields remain unchanged.

Tip: Always exclude technical fields that are used by applications or integrations.

Page Exclusions

Page exclusions can be used to exclude certain pages or page groups from being translated by Clonable. Page exclusions will only exclude pages from being translated, pages can still be visited on the Clone. CSS selector gives you the capability to only exclude certain parts of a page, i.e. section of the page with related articles.