Translating Sentences With Links and Bold Text Into Japanese and Korean

By Titus Decali · 2026-10-18

Translate the whole sentence as one unit, with each link or bold part marked, and let the marks move to where Japanese or Korean puts those words. "Click here to create your account" becomes "to create your account, here click" in Japanese, so the link on "here" has to move to the middle. Google Translate, DeepL and Proxylang all translate the full sentence. They differ in where the edge of the link or bold text lands: on the word, on the grammar after it, or halfway through a word.

Why piece-by-piece translation breaks the sentence

On a web page, "Click <a>here</a> to create your account." is three pieces of text: "Click ", "here" and " to create your account." A tool that translates each piece on its own has to keep them in English order, because it never sees the sentence. Japanese and Korean need the verb at the end, so the result reads in English word order with Japanese words.

The fix is to send the whole sentence with markers, for example "Click {0} to create your account.", and get back a sentence where {0} sits in the right place for the target language. Each marker keeps its own tag, so the link stays a link and bold stays bold.

How we tested

On 2026-10-18 we sent the same five English sentences, each with links, bold or italic parts, to three services:

• Google Cloud Translation, in HTML mode, so it sees the tags.
• The DeepL API, with HTML tag handling and its quality-optimized model. Weglot's help center says it uses DeepL first for language pairs DeepL supports, which includes Japanese and Korean.
• Proxylang's translation API.

The tables show the raw output with the tags, so you can see where each link or bold part starts and ends.

Example 1: the particle inside the link

Source: Click <a>here</a> to create your account.

All three moved the link to the middle, which is correct. Google put the particle を inside the link, so the underline runs under a grammar mark that is not part of "here". DeepL and Proxylang link only こちら.

Example 2: three styled parts in one sentence

Source: Track <strong>every interaction</strong>, understand <em>user behavior</em>, and make <a>data-driven decisions</a> in real time.

Google and DeepL both pulled を into the italic text and into the link. Proxylang kept every を outside the styled words, so the link covers "data-driven decisions" and nothing else.

Example 3: Korean, and a link that stops halfway

Source: <strong>Free shipping</strong> on every order over <a>$50</a>.

All three moved "$50" to the front, as Korean requires. Google left a space before the final period. DeepL put the particle 이 inside the bold text. Proxylang kept the price as written, since it never converts currency.

DeepL's edge errors were clearer on two other sentences. For "from your <a>account settings</a>" it linked only 계정 (account) and left 설정 (settings) outside the link. For "before you <strong>sign up</strong>" the bold ended inside the verb, 회원 <strong>가입을 하</strong>시기, and the privacy policy link swallowed the word 꼭 ("be sure to"), which is not in the source link. Proxylang linked the whole 계정 설정 and the whole 개인정보 처리방침.

How Proxylang keeps links and bold in place

Proxylang groups a sentence's links, bold and italic parts into one unit before translating, so it reads the full sentence, not loose pieces. The translation comes back as a sentence with numbered markers plus the text for each marker.

Before a translation is saved, it is checked:

• Every marker must appear exactly once. A translation that drops a link or repeats one is rejected.
• Japanese and Korean particles that slip inside a link or bold part are moved back outside it.
• Korean particles that change form after a vowel or consonant, such as 을 and 를, are matched to the last sound of the translated link text.
• Two pieces glued together with no space, such as an English word running into the next, are flagged.

The finished sentence is cached, so later visitors get the same translation right away.

How to check your own translated site

Open a Japanese or Korean page of your site and look at every link and bold phrase:

1. Does the link cover the whole word, not half of it?
2. Is a particle such as を, が, 을 or 를 sitting inside the link? It should usually sit just after it.
3. Is there a stray space before a period or after a link?
4. Did any linked or bold phrase disappear?

If you find a problem on a Proxylang site, click the sentence in the Live Editor and fix it in place.

Frequently asked questions

Does Weglot keep links and bold text when it translates?

Yes. Weglot's help center says it keeps some HTML tags, such as bold, italic and links, in translations. For Japanese and Korean its first-pass words come from DeepL.

Why does a particle inside a link matter?

The link underline and click area then cover a grammar mark that is not part of the linked name. It reads as careless to Japanese and Korean readers, much like underlining "the" together with a product name in English.

Do I need to change my HTML for this to work with Proxylang?

No. Proxylang reads the page as it is, groups each sentence's inline parts, and writes the translation back into the same tags.

Sources

• Weglot uses DeepL first when DeepL supports the language pair: support.weglot.com
• Weglot keeps some HTML tags, such as bold and links, in translation: support.weglot.com

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