A bilingual person can change from one language to another in the middle of a sentence, and this code-switching is a topic of study for linguists.
Source: tatoeba (1561536)
Code-switching
Synonyms for "code-switching" (1 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (1)
Noun(1 words)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
Translations
29 translations across 19 languages.
Arabic
1 entries- تَنَاوَب لُغَوِيّ noun (phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages)
Catalan
1 entries- alternança de codi noun (phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages)
Chinese Mandarin
1 entries- 語碼轉換 /语码转换 noun (phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages)
Estonian
1 entries- koodivahetus noun (phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages)
Finnish
1 entries- koodinvaihto noun (phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages)
French
2 entries- alternance codique noun (phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages)
- alternance de code noun (phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages)
German
4 entries- Code-Switching noun (phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages)
- Kode-Umschaltung noun (phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages)
- Kodewechsel noun (phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages)
- Sprachwechsel noun (phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages)
Indonesian
1 entries- alih kode noun (phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages)
Irish
1 entries- códmhalartú noun (phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages)
Japanese
1 entries- コードスイッチング noun (phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages)
Korean
2 entries- 부호전환 noun (phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages)
- 코드 스위칭 noun (phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages)
Meänkieli
1 entries- kootinvaihto noun (phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages)
Occitan
1 entries- alternància de còdi noun (phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages)
Persian
1 entries- رمزگردانی noun (phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages)
Portuguese
1 entries- alternância de código noun (phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages)
Russian
2 entries- переключе́ние ко́дов noun (phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages)
- смеше́ние ко́дов noun (phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages)
Spanish
4 entries- alternancia de código noun (phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages)
- conmutación lingüística noun (phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages)
- transmudación lingüística noun (phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages)
- transmudamiento lingüístico noun (phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages)
Swahili
1 entries- kuchanganya msimbo noun (phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages)
Ukrainian
1 entries- перемикання кодів noun (phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages)
Sample sentences
13 total sentences available.
Tom feels most comfortable code-switching between his two main languages.
Source: tatoeba (9440055)
Filipinos don't believe in language purity, as they mix languages, typically Tagalog and English, freely, this code-switching being called Taglish. Tagalog proper is already full of Spanish loanwords and borrowings from other languages, like Hokkien. The Philippines is under the American sphere of influence, and code-switching is how Filipinos deal with modernization. Tagalog has an "old attic" of vintage words, with which modern Filipinos are less familiar, but which are still in common use in rural areas and with old folk.
Source: tatoeba (10719565)
Code-switching between languages is common practice in the Philippines. It's not just between Tagalog and English, but also with Hokkien, or with the many, many indigenous languages on the islands. Filipinos don't believe in language purity. Spanish words are embedded like gold nuggets inside many indigenous languages.
Source: tatoeba (10729743)
Showing 4 of 13 available sentences.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.