TranslatePress - Serve English at / while keeping Spanish as editorial language?

Hey,

I'm using TranslatePress on my WordPress site. All my content is written in Spanish, which is set as the default language. But I need English to load at the root URL (/) instead of /en. English is the main language for my audience.

I can't switch my editorial language to English, way too much content already written in Spanish.

Is there any way to decouple the root URL from the editorial language in TranslatePress? And if I just change the default language to English in settings, will my existing translations survive or will everything break?

Thanks!

TranslatePress connects the root URL (/) to the default language, so if you switch the default from Spanish to English, your Spanish content should still remain as translations rather than disappearing. Before making changes, create a full backup and test everything on a staging site if possible. Keep in mind that your Spanish pages will likely move to /es/, which can affect URLs and SEO. There’s no simple built-in option to separate the editorial language from the root URL, so many users rely on redirects or custom setup changes.

Yes, you can change the default/front-end language to English in TranslatePress without rewriting your Spanish content. Your existing Spanish translations usually stay stored in the database, so they won’t disappear, but URLs and language structure can change, so take a full backup first.

After switching English as default, English will load on / and Spanish can move to /es/. Just be prepared to regenerate permalinks and possibly update internal links or SEO settings after the switch.

Unfortunately, it is designed to link the default language to the root url, so you can't have rnglish at the root while keeping spanish as your editorial language without a workaround like a manual setup or a different plugin. Changing the default language to english could potentially mess up your existing translations, so definitely back everything up before you try it. Or you can hire wordpress developer to solve your problem

Make a full backup first before trying anything out. In most cases, changing the default language in TranslatePress won’t delete your existing translations, but URL structures and some settings can behave differently after the switch.

Test on staging first before switching anything live.

TranslatePress usually treats the default language as the root language, so English at "/" while editing in Spanish may not be cleanly supported.

Switching the default language in TranslatePress can feel like pulling a thread on a sweater, so I get why you're double checking. I’ve done this before and the translations stayed put, but the URL shuffle can get messy fast. I usually clone the site and play with settings there first so I don't break stuff on the live one. If things still fight you, a different multilingual plugin might save some headaches.