About the Language Portal of Canada

Read a description of our main resources, and find out how our resources are funded and how to contact the language team.

Follow:

On this page

Who these resources are for

The Language Portal of Canada is for you—and for all Canadians who want to improve their language skills.

  • Are you just starting to learn English or French?
  • Do you need basic or expert writing help?
  • Are you looking for just the right term?
  • Would you like to test your language skills?
  • Are you looking for Indigenous languages resources?

We have high-quality language resources just for you.

How to get started

With so many resources, it can be difficult to know where to begin. Don’t worry! We’ve created some videos to help you get started:

Would you like to know a bit more about our tools? Read the descriptions below to learn about the main sections of the Portal.

Language Navigator

Language Navigator is a search engine designed to search several of our resources at the same time. Use it when you need help with writing.

Example 1

Your question
Do I need a comma after the year in a date?

Your search
comma after year

Example 2

Your question
Do I use affect or effect?

Your search
affect effect

Example 3

Your question
How do I write a 10-digit telephone number?

Your search
telephone numbers

Go to Language Navigator.

TERMIUM Plus®

TERMIUM Plus® is a huge data bank of over 4 million terms in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. Use it to find the official translation of a term in another language, the definition of a term, and a wealth of other useful information.

Example 1

Your question
What is selfie in French?

Your search
selfie

Example 2

Your question
What is nanotechnology?

Your search
nanotechnology

Example 3

Your question
What is the postal abbreviation for Saskatchewan?

Your search
Saskatchewan

Go to TERMIUM Plus®.

Official Languages Hub®

The Official Languages Hub® is a tool that allows you to simultaneously search a wide variety of official language resources from various Government of Canada departments and agencies. You can find information on a variety of subjects, such as learning, official language minority communities, second language evaluation, service delivery and the promotion of official languages.

To learn more about how to search for content in this tool, see the page How to use the Official Languages Hub®.

Watch the interview with Lucie Séguin, former chief executive officer of Public Services and Procurement Canada’s Translation Bureau, who talks about the second phase of the Official Languages Hub®.

Go to the Official Languages Hub®.

Our Languages blog

Check out this section to read and comment on posts written by language lovers and to find out how you, too, can contribute to the Our Languages blog!

Go to the Our Languages blog.

Quizzes

Take some quizzes to test your knowledge!

We create quizzes on all sorts of topics:

  • grammar and syntax
  • punctuation
  • spelling
  • style and writing
  • vocabulary
  • general language knowledge

The quizzes are short, and you get the answers and explanations right away.

Go to Quizzes.

Collection of Canadian language resources

Use this section to find links to resources from across Canada.

We have organized them for you into seven categories:

  • writing resources
  • gender-inclusive writing
  • glossaries and dictionaries
  • Indigenous languages
  • language learning
  • sign languages
  • organizations and events

Go to our Collection of Canadian language resources.

Results of the Language Portal of Canada survey

The Language Portal recently conducted a survey to determine how satisfied users are with its resources. The results of the survey are shown below. Since the website is updated on an ongoing basis, the Portal team will make use of the comments it received to enhance the resources provided on the Portal.

Infographic: Language Portal of Canada Survey Results

Complete description follows Infographic: Infographic: Language Portal of Canada Survey Results.

Click on the image to enlarge.

Image description

The following are the results of the survey conducted by the Portal in spring 2022 to determine how satisfied users are with its resources.

  1. Language Portal
    • 88% of Portal users rated the quality of the resources as good or excellent
    • 90% of those surveyed said the Portal is useful or very useful for finding the right word in their second language
    • 86% of users found the Portal useful or very useful for drafting texts at work
  2. Language Navigator
    • 88% of users rated the quality of Language Navigator as good or excellent
  3. TERMIUM Plus®
    • 89% of users rated the quality of TERMIUM Plus® as good or excellent

Our thanks to everyone who took the time to complete the survey!

How to cite the Language Portal of Canada

When you reuse articles, quizzes or content from other sections of the Portal, you must clearly indicate the source as follows:

Source: Language Portal of Canada, Translation Bureau, Public Services and Procurement Canada, http://www.canada.ca/our-languages.

However, you must request permission to reuse the following content:

How we’re funded

The Language Portal of Canada is funded through the Action Plan for Official Languages.

Consult the Annual Report on Official Languages 2019–2020 to find out what actions the Government is taking with regard to official languages.

Contact the Language Portal of Canada

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, we’d love to hear from you.

Email

noslangues.ourlanguages@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca

Telephone

Toll-free telephone number:
1-855-997-3300 (Canada and the USA)
Local telephone number:
819-997-3300
Fax:
819-997-1993
Teletype:
1-800-926-9105

Address

Translation Bureau – Language Portal Division
70 Crémazie St.
Gatineau, Québec  K1A 0S5

Privacy notice statement

Provision of the information is on a voluntary basis. We will use the information for the purpose of responding to your questions/comments, and to improve our Internet presence. The information will be held in Public Services and Procurement Canada’s Personal Information Bank number PPU 115 Internet and PPE 830 Intranet Services, and it will be retained according to the retention and disposal schedule established for this bank.

Your personal information is protected under the provisions of the Privacy Act. Under the Act, you have the right to request access to and correction of your personal information, if erroneous or incomplete. If you wish to avail yourself of this right or require clarification about this statement, contact our privacy coordinator at AIPRP.ATIP@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca. For more information on privacy issues and the Privacy Act consult the Privacy Commissioner’s website.

For more information about your rights, visit Info Source. This is a Government of Canada publication available in major libraries, at government information offices and from constituency offices of federal Members of Parliament.

The Internet is a public forum and electronic information can be intercepted. This is not a secure website. Please do not disclose unnecessary confidential information about yourself or your accounts with PSPC.