# Translation inside models?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/translation-inside-models/166283>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [April 23, 2009, 1:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/translation-inside-models/166283 "2009-04-23T13:43:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cojones](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@cojones](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cojones)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 1:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/translation-inside-models/166283/1 "2009-04-23T13:43:31Z")

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Hey people,

I’m having a problem translating messages inside a model, e.g. I used to  
have it like this:

validates\_uniqueness\_of :username, :message =\> “Username in use already”

which worked fine but now I wanna internationalize my application and  
thought it’d work like everywhere else in my application and I did  
following:

validates\_uniqueness\_of :username, :message =\> (t :username\_in\_use)

and I get: `method_missing': undefined method`t’

Is it not possible to translate text inside a model? If it is… how do  
I do it the right way?

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**Author:** ![cojones](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@cojones](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cojones)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 5:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/translation-inside-models/166283/2 "2009-04-23T17:14:53Z")

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Inside a model is used like this:

I18n.t(:username\_in\_use)

You can also put it in the translation yml like this:

es:  
activerecord:  
errors:  
messages:  
taken: “ya está en uso”

There are more examples in:

> **[rails-i18n/rails/locale at master · svenfuchs/rails-i18n](https://github.com/svenfuchs/rails-i18n/tree/master/rails%2Flocale)**
>
> master/rails%2Flocale

Regards.

Franco C…

On Apr 23, 8:43 am, Heinz S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cojones](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@cojones](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cojones)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 6:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/translation-inside-models/166283/3 "2009-04-23T18:19:00Z")

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Thank you! Especially for remdinding me of the ability to override the  
default messages 🙂