Why placeholders break so often

Placeholders are easy for translators and models to misread because they look like natural language fragments. If {{name}}, {{count}}, or %s changes shape, the translated string can fail at runtime.

A safer review workflow

• Identify placeholder formats used in your app before translation starts.
• Protect adjacent product terms that often get mistranslated together with variables.
• Review translated output with diff highlighting turned on.
• Test the translated strings inside the application, not just in a JSON editor.

What to check before release

• Every placeholder still exists in the translated value.
• Spacing and punctuation around tokens still read naturally in the target language.
• Plural and count-based messages still make sense with real numbers.
• No HTML or markdown-like fragments were rewritten unexpectedly.