Fix: Word Keeps Changing Language or Keyboard Layout

Why Word Changes Your Language

Word can automatically detect and switch languages, but this feature sometimes misidentifies text, causing spell check and formatting issues.

Step-by-Step Fix

Step 1: Set Your Default Language

1. Go to File > Options > Language
2. Under Office authoring languages and proofing
3. Move your preferred language to the top
4. Click Set as Default

Step 2: Disable Automatic Language Detection

1. Select all text: Ctrl+A
2. Go to Review > Language > Set Proofing Language
3. Select your language
4. Uncheck Detect language automatically
5. Click OK

Step 3: Fix Keyboard Language Switching

Windows may switch your keyboard layout with Alt+Shift or Ctrl+Shift:

1. Go to Windows Settings > Time & Language > Language
2. Remove languages you don’t use
3. Or change the keyboard switching hotkey:
   • Go to Advanced keyboard settings > Input language hot keys
   • Change or disable the shortcut

Step 4: Fix the Normal Template

If language changes persist:

1. Close Word
2. Go to %appdata%\Microsoft\Templates
3. Delete Normal.dotm
4. Reopen Word and set the correct language in a new document

For Multilingual Documents

If you intentionally use multiple languages:

1. Select each language section separately
2. Set the proofing language for each section individually
3. Keep “Detect language automatically” enabled only for multilingual content