Q. How do I cite a source in a foreign language in APA?

Note: this advice is for works in their original language that have have not been published in translation. For a published translation, cite the work as a translated work.

When referencing you must give the details that will enable someone to find that work if they wish to see it, as well as provide details to help your reader understand what the work is. Providing a translation of a title without the original may make it harder to find, providing the title without a translation may make it harder to understand. Therefore, you give both.

For works in a foreign language, give the referencing details in the original language and provide a translation of the title in square brackets after the title.

For example:

Notes:

• Tranlsate only the title of the work being cited - i.e., the journal article, the chapter of the edited book, or the book. You do not need to translate the title of the "container" (i.e., the title of the journal, the title of the edited book).
• If the journal title has two languages as part if its name, check the journal's cover, home page and recommended citations to determine how to format the name. For example, many bilinguagal Canadian journals have a dual name, and you should refer to their recommended citations (the Desmarais et al. example). Other journals may have the translated title of the journal as a subtitle, and it should be formatted as such (the Risberg example). Otherwise, use the journal's primary name.
• Retain the correct case for the language (for example, German "sentence case" includes captials on all nouns).
• If the title would normally be italicised (i.e., a book title, webpages), only italicise the original title, not the translation in square brackets.

If the language uses a different alphabet (e.g. Chinese, Korean, Russian, Greek, etc.), transliterate it into a Roman script (advice on transliterating into Roman script can be found in the Library of Congress Romanization Tables).

This must always be done for the author names (try to find an existing transliteration, if possible), however sometimes it is not possible or desirable to transliterate the title, in which case, leave the title in it's original language:

How do I refer to these works in text?

APA recommends that you paraphrase works that are in another language, rather than quoting. Always use a page number for your in-text citations so readers can find the original text.

If directly quoting the original language, use quotation marks as you would normally and provide a paraphrased explanation of the quote.

For example:

A tweet viewed via a hashtag may be decontextualised, and it might not be thematically appropriate in the new context (Dürscheid & Lippuner, 2022, p. 477).

Dürscheid and Lippuner (2022) noted that tweets that have been decontextualised through a hashtag are not necessarily "thematisch passend" (thematically appropriate) in the new context (p. 477).

If you are providing longer quotes in the original language, and offering a translation, rather than a brief paraphrase/clarification, place your translation in square brackets:

While they are often used interchangeably, "Hash und Hashtag sind also nicht dasselbe" [hash and hashtag are not the same thing] (Dürscheid & Lippuner, 2022, p. 476).

What if I did not read the original language, but used a service or a program to translate it into English?

If you had the work translated for you by a person or a service, but that translation is not publically available, only include the details for the published version (the foreign language original) in your reference list.

In text, make note of the fact that you used a translation. Ideally, this will be noted in the methodology section of your paper, and then you can just cite the work in text as above. However, if you cannot incorporate a mention of the translation in your text, you can add a note in your in-text citation.

Use "translated from the original [insert language] work" for paraphrasing, or "translated verbatim from the original [insert language] work" for direct quotes of word-for-word translations.

A tweet viewed via a hashtag may be decontextualised, and it might not be thematically appropriate in the new context (Dürscheid & Lippuner, 2022, p. 477; translated from the original German work).

Dürscheid and Lippuner (2022) noted a tweet that has been decontextualised through a hashtag is not necessarily "thematically appropriate in the new context"  (p. 477; translated verbatim from the original German work).

If you translated the work using a program, such as Google Translate or an AI program, make a note of it in your in-text citation. For example:

A tweet viewed via a hashtag may be decontextualised, and it might not be thematically appropriate in the new context (Dürscheid & Lippuner, 2022, p. 477; translated from the original German work with Google Translate).

Dürscheid and Lippuner (2022) noted a tweet that has been decontextualised through a hashtag is not necessarily "thematically appropriate in the new context"  (p. 477; translated verbatim from the original German work with Google Translate).

Transliterate author's names for in-text citations, just as you do for the reference list.

Right: (Kim, 2020)
Wrong: (김흥숙, 2020)