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Keyboard language is a language-related text-input setting; keyboard layout controls how key presses and modifier combinations map to characters or actions. They are related, but changing one does not necessarily change the other—and neither is the same as your operating system’s display language.
What changes when you change a keyboard layout?
A layout defines the mapping between keys and the characters or actions they produce. If the active software layout does not match the legends printed on your physical keyboard, pressing a key may produce a different character from the one shown on the key. The printed legends belong to the hardware; the active mapping is a software setting.
One language can have several layouts. GNOME gives Dvorak for English as an example: the language remains English while the arrangement of key mappings differs. You can also install more than one layout and switch between them as needed.
What does “keyboard language” mean?
People often use “keyboard language” to mean the language-related configuration used for text entry. Depending on the operating system, a setting may combine that language with a layout or input method. Microsoft describes a language-and-keyboard pairing as an input profile, while its Windows support page uses “keyboard/input layout” and then simplifies the term to “keyboard layout.” Apple calls the corresponding choices input sources; GNOME uses “Input Sources.” These labels overlap, but they are not a universal set of synonyms.
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On Windows, the language part of an input profile can also affect spelling, hyphenation, and touch-keyboard text prediction. That is separate from the layout’s job of mapping keys, and platform behavior varies.
How is keyboard language different from display language?
The display language controls the language of the operating system interface—for example, Settings and File Explorer in Windows. The keyboard layout controls what is entered when you press keys. Changing the layout is not the way to change interface menus, and changing the display language is not required just to type with another layout.
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Change or check your keyboard setting
Windows 10 and Windows 11
- Open Settings → Time & language → Language & region and inspect the installed languages.
- To add a layout, open the options for the relevant language and add a keyboard under Keyboards. Microsoft notes that you do not always need to install a full language pack matching the layout you want. See Microsoft’s Windows language and keyboard guidance.
- Switch layouts using the taskbar input-language icon or press Windows logo key + Space to cycle through installed layouts. If the shortcut does nothing, Microsoft says only one layout may be installed.
These instructions cover Windows 10 and 11; Settings labels can change in later releases.
macOS
Switch input sources from the Input menu or by using the keyboard shortcut configured for your Mac. Apple’s developer documentation lists Control-Option-Space for moving to the next input source, but shortcut availability and settings can vary. If it differs on your Mac, check the current Keyboard and Input Sources settings. The Input menu can also open Keyboard Viewer, which shows the layout for the selected input source. See Apple’s guide to typing in another language on Mac and Apple’s input-source documentation.
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GNOME
Open Settings → Keyboard → Input Sources to configure layouts. One language can have multiple layouts, such as English with Dvorak. GNOME also documents an option to remember a layout for each window, so the selected layout can differ when you switch windows. Menu wording may vary by GNOME version. See GNOME’s keyboard-layout guidance.
Quick Recap
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Fix the setting that matches the problem
- Unexpected letters or symbols: Check the active layout or input source first. Compare it with the physical keyboard’s legends; on macOS, Keyboard Viewer can show the selected mapping.
- Menus and system controls are in the wrong language: Check the display-language setting, not the keyboard layout.
- Characters are right, but spelling or text prediction is wrong: Check the language-related input profile as well as the layout. Windows documents language-specific spelling and prediction behavior.
- You only need an accented or special character occasionally: You may not need to switch layouts. Microsoft Office documents inserting symbols for users of Latin-alphabet languages; see Microsoft’s Office symbol-insertion guidance.
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