# General Translation Integrations: Querying translations
URL: https://generaltranslation.com/en-GB/docs/integrations/sanity/guides/querying-translations.mdx
---

title: Querying translations
description: How to query document-level and field-level Sanity translations with GROQ.
related:
  links:
    - /docs/integrations/sanity/guides/translating-content
    - /docs/integrations/sanity/guides/managing-translations
    - /docs/integrations/sanity/guides/configuring-sanity

---

General Translation supports two Sanity storage models. Document-level localisation creates a document for each locale, while field-level localisation stores locale values in internationalised arrays in a single document.

## Query document-level translations [#documents]

Document-level translations are tagged with a language field, which defaults to `language`. Query the version you need by filtering on that field.

### Query source content

Source documents do not set the language field by default. Exclude translated documents by filtering for an undefined language field.

```text
*[_type == "article" && !defined(language)]{
  title,
  slug,
  body
}
```

### Query a target locale

Filter by the language field.

```text
*[_type == "article" && language == "es"]{
  title,
  slug,
  body
}
```

### Query a translated document

```text
*[_type == "article" && slug.current == "hello-world" && language == "es"][0]{
  title,
  body
}
```

If you dedupe translated slugs, the slug includes the locale suffix, such as `hello-world-es`.

### Query all language versions

```text
*[_type == "article"]{
  title,
  slug,
  body,
  language
}
```

### Query source content with or without a language field

Some source documents explicitly set the source locale while others leave the language field undefined. Include both representations when you need all source content.

```text
*[_type == "article" && (language == "en" || !defined(language))]{
  title,
  slug,
  body
}
```

### Use a custom language field

If your plugin config sets `languageField: 'locale'`, query `locale` instead of `language`. The schema field and the query field must match the configured value.

```text
*[_type == "article" && locale == "es"]{
  title,
  slug,
  body
}
```

### Query translated references

Reference patching updates the translated document's draft, creating one from the published state when needed. Publish the patched draft before querying the published version. The translated document then points to translated versions of referenced documents.

```text
*[_type == "article" && language == "es"]{
  title,
  "author": author->{
    name,
    language
  }
}
```

See [Patch references](/docs/integrations/sanity/guides/managing-translations#patch-references) for how references are rewritten.

## Query field-level translations [#fields]

Field-level localisation stores each locale in an `internationalizedArray*` field. Filter the array by its `language` property and project the matching `value`:

```text
*[_type == "article"][0]{
  "titleEs": title[language == "es"][0].value,
  "bodyEs": body[language == "es"][0].value
}
```

The document itself does not receive the document-level `language` field or a `translation.metadata` link. Query other non-localised fields from the same document as usual.
## Next steps

- /docs/integrations/sanity/guides/translating-content
- /docs/integrations/sanity/guides/managing-translations
- /docs/integrations/sanity/guides/configuring-sanity