# generaltranslation: General Translation Core SDK: requiresTranslation
URL: https://generaltranslation.com/en-US/docs/core/functions/locales/requires-translation.mdx
---
title: requiresTranslation
description: API reference for the requiresTranslation function
---

## Overview

The `requiresTranslation` function determines whether translation is needed between source and target locales without requiring a GT class instance.

---

## Reference

### Parameters

<TypeTable
  type={{
    "sourceLocale": {
      type: 'string',
      optional: false,
    },
    "targetLocale": {
      type: 'string',
      optional: false,
    },
    "approvedLocales?": {
      type: 'string[]',
      optional: true,
    },
    "customMapping?": {
      type: 'CustomMapping',
      optional: true,
    }
  }}
/>

### Returns

`boolean` - `true` if translation is required, `false` otherwise

---

## Examples

```typescript
import { requiresTranslation } from 'generaltranslation';

// Different languages require translation
console.log(requiresTranslation('en-US', 'es-ES')); // true
console.log(requiresTranslation('en-US', 'fr-FR')); // true

// Same languages don't require translation
console.log(requiresTranslation('en-US', 'en-US')); // false
console.log(requiresTranslation('en-US', 'en-GB')); // false

// With approved locales filter
const approved = ['en-US', 'es-ES', 'fr-FR'];
console.log(requiresTranslation('en-US', 'it-IT', approved)); // false (not approved)
console.log(requiresTranslation('en-US', 'es-ES', approved)); // true (approved and different)
```
---

## Notes

- Respects approved locale constraints
- Returns false when target not in approved list
- Considers custom locale mappings

## Next steps

- Use GT class method [`requiresTranslation`](/docs/core/class/methods/locales/requires-translation)
- Compare languages with [`isSameLanguage`](/docs/core/functions/locales/is-same-language)