What to change default Translate option from French to Japanese or US Englis

The below is from an AI / LMM

If the below works, I take not credit

This is a surprisingly common issue on recent macOS versions (including the macOS Tahoe). The Translate context menu doesn’t always use your “Preferred Languages” list the way you’d expect. It can instead latch onto:

• the last translation target used,
• Siri & Dictation language,
• Apple Intelligence language,
• Safari translation preferences,
• or even a stuck cached language pair.

French showing up by default even when it’s nowhere in your language list usually means the translation service cache got stuck at some point.

Try these fixes in order — the earlier ones are the most likely to solve it.

1. Change the Translate Target Directly (Most Important)

When you:

1. Highlight text
2. Right-click → Translate

In the translation popup:

• Look for the language dropdown at the top/right.
• Change French to Japanese or English (US) manually once.

Then:

• close the popup completely,
• try translating again.

macOS often remembers the last used translation target, not your system language order.

2. Check Apple Intelligence / Siri Language

On Tahoe, translation is increasingly tied into Apple Intelligence and Siri settings.

Go to:

System Settings → Apple Intelligence & Siri

Check:

• Language
• Preferred Responses Language
• Siri Language

If any of these are French, change them.

Recommended:

• Siri Language → English (Australia) or English (US)

Then reboot.

3. Remove French from Translation Downloads

macOS sometimes keeps offline translation packs.

Go to:

System Settings → General → Language & Region

Then:

• look for Translation Languages
• or Live Translation
• or Downloaded Languages (wording changes between builds)

If French is installed:

• remove it,
• restart,
• then install Japanese instead.

4. Reset the Translation Cache (Very Effective)

This is often what actually fixes the “always French” bug.

Open:

• Terminal

Run:

defaults delete com.apple.Translate

Then reboot your Mac.

If that says the domain doesn’t exist, try:

defaults delete com.apple.translationd

Then reboot again.

This resets saved translation preferences and cached target languages.

5. Check Safari Translation Preferences

Even if you’re translating outside Safari, macOS sometimes inherits Safari translation defaults.

Open:

• Safari

Then:

• Safari → Settings → Languages
• Remove French if present.
• Make sure English/Japanese are prioritized.

6. Force-Reorder Preferred Languages

Even though you already checked this, try:

1. Remove ALL extra languages temporarily
2. Leave only:

• • English (US)
  • Japanese

1. Restart Mac
2. Test Translate
3. Add the others back later

Tahoe betas especially have bugs where hidden language priorities survive normal changes.

7. If You’re on a Tahoe

macOS Tahoe, this is very likely a bug rather than misconfiguration. There are reports of:

• Translate ignoring preferred language order
• French/German sticking as target languages
• Translation language not persisting

Updating to the newest beta patch often fixes it.

Check:

• System Settings → General → Software Update

What Usually Works

In practice, the fixes that most often solve this are:

1. Manually changing the language once inside the Translate popup
2. Resetting translation defaults via Terminal
3. Changing Siri/Apple Intelligence language
4. Rebooting after removing French translation packs

If you want, I can also show you:

• how to completely reset macOS language services,
• how to make Japanese the primary translation target specifically,
• or how to disable automatic language detection entirely.

For me on macOS GG, this worked: defaults delete com.apple.translationd and re-selecting the language during translation. Now the selected language is saved.

" why does it always default to French "

Using the above text

Mouse over " Chinese ( Mandarin, Simplified ) in text

Not the up an down arrow ?

Click on it

Choose Japanese

The translation function tends to use the Lasted Use Language

i solved cancelled all the folders and files about translation in my user Library folder

Hey, do you remember how you did it? I have the same problem.

Tried to explore the library, guided by chatgpt, but didn't succeed. It's driving me crazy (mine translates to Spanish. Nothing is set like that anywhere in my machine)

Same for me, alweys translate to Spanish...