Interpolation & Formatting
Basic interpolation
Pass values as the second argument to t():
// translations/en.json
{
"greeting": "Hello, {{name}}!",
"itemsLeft": "{{count}} items left",
"welcomeBack": "Welcome back, {{firstName}} {{lastName}}"
}t("greeting", { name: "Alice" }) // "Hello, Alice!"
t("itemsLeft", { count: 3 }) // "3 items left"
t("welcomeBack", { firstName: "John", lastName: "Doe" })Nested key access
Use dot notation for nested translation keys:
{
"profile": {
"title": "Your Profile",
"bio": "Tell us about {{name}}"
}
}t("profile.title") // "Your Profile"
t("profile.bio", { name: "you" }) // "Tell us about you"Number formatting
Use Intl.NumberFormat for locale-aware numbers — pass the formatted string as an interpolation value:
function formatNumber(value: number, locale: string): string {
return new Intl.NumberFormat(locale).format(value)
}
// In component
{ span: (l) => t("price", { amount: formatNumber(1234567.89, locale.get(l)) }) }
// en-US: "Price: 1,234,567.89"
// de-DE: "Price: 1.234.567,89"Or format before passing to t():
// In translations: { "price": "Price: {{amount}}" }
const { t, getLocale } = i18n
function formatCurrency(value: number): string {
return new Intl.NumberFormat(getLocale(), { style: "currency", currency: "USD" }).format(value)
}
{ span: (l) => t(l, "price", { amount: formatCurrency(42.5) }) }
// "Price: $42.50"Date formatting
Format dates before passing as interpolation values:
const { t, getLocale } = i18n
function formatDate(value: Date): string {
return new Intl.DateTimeFormat(getLocale(), { dateStyle: "medium" }).format(value)
}
// { "lastSeen": "Last seen {{date}}" }
{ span: (l) => t(l, "lastSeen", { date: formatDate(new Date("2025-06-26")) }) }
// "Last seen Jun 26, 2025"Relative time
Use Intl.RelativeTimeFormat for "2 hours ago", "in 3 days":
function relativeTime(date: Date, locale: string): string {
const seconds = Math.floor((Date.now() - date.getTime()) / 1000)
const rtf = new Intl.RelativeTimeFormat(locale, { numeric: "auto" })
if (Math.abs(seconds) < 60) return rtf.format(-Math.round(seconds), "second")
if (Math.abs(seconds) < 3600) return rtf.format(-Math.round(seconds / 60), "minute")
if (Math.abs(seconds) < 86400) return rtf.format(-Math.round(seconds / 3600), "hour")
return rtf.format(-Math.round(seconds / 86400), "day")
}
const Timestamp = (date: Date) => ({
time: (l) => relativeTime(date, locale.get(l)),
dateTime: date.toISOString(),
})Escaping
Domphy is the escaping boundary, so @domphy/i18n turns i18next's escaping off. escapeValue defaults to false here, unlike bare i18next (and for the same reason react-i18next ships escapeValue: false).
A string child is always rendered as TEXT: the client sets it through the DOM, and SSR escapes it.
new ElementNode({ p: "O'Brien & Tom <3" }).generateHTML()
// <p class="…">O'Brien & Tom <3</p>With i18next escaping left on, an interpolated value is escaped twice — the render boundary escapes the entities — and the reader sees the entity source rather than the characters: a date comes out as 1/2/2026, a name as O'Brien.
t("greeting", { name: "O'Brien & Alice" })
// → "Hello, O'Brien & Alice!" — escaped once, at renderRendering a translation as markup is the explicit opt-in:
{ "linkText": "Read the <a href='{{url}}'>docs</a>" }import { rawHtml } from "@domphy/core"
{ p: rawHtml(t("linkText", { url: "https://domphy.com" })) }
rawHtml()strips<script>,on*handlers andjavascript:URLs, but it is defense in depth, not a sanitizer for untrusted input. Only pass it translations you control — never a string built from user-supplied content.
Pass interpolation: { escapeValue: true } to createI18n (or per call via t(key, { interpolation: { escapeValue: true } })) when a translated string is handed to something other than Domphy that parses HTML and does not sanitize.
Context (gender / form variants)
Use context to select a translation variant based on gender or other categorical data:
{
"greeting_male": "He joined",
"greeting_female": "She joined",
"greeting": "They joined"
}t("greeting", { context: "male" }) // "He joined"
t("greeting", { context: "female" }) // "She joined"
t("greeting") // "They joined" (default)Combining context and count
{
"items_male_one": "{{name}} has {{count}} item",
"items_male_other": "{{name}} has {{count}} items",
"items_female_one": "{{name}} has {{count}} item",
"items_female_other": "{{name}} has {{count}} items"
}t("items", { count: 2, context: "female", name: "Alice" })
// "Alice has 2 items"Default values
Provide a fallback if a key is missing (useful during development):
t("missing.key", { defaultValue: "Fallback text" })Typed interpolation
Use the t function returned from createI18n — its key type is inferred from the messages generic:
const { t } = createI18n<"en", typeof en>({ ... })
// t("greeting", { name: "Alice" }) — key and interpolation vars are type-checked
const greeting = t("greeting", { name: "Alice" })