How what3words addresses work in Left-to-Right (LTR) and Right to Left (RTL) scripts

04/08/2025

what3words addresses offer a simple way to communicate location – each address is made up of three dictionary words, and always starts with three forward slashes ( /// ). For example, an English address for a specific spot in Hyde Park, London is ///line.trade.deed

In any language, the format remains the same: ///word1.word2.word3 with no spaces, all lowercase (assuming the writing script differentiates between lowercase and uppercase letters). This consistency makes what3words easy to read, type and share across the globe.

However, when it comes to right-to-left (RTL) languages like Arabic or Hebrew, there are some nuances in how these addresses are displayed. In this blog, we’ll explain how what3words addresses are formatted and interpreted in both left-to-right (LTR) and right-to-left scripts, with examples and tips for developers and product teams.

The anatomy of a what3words address (LTR basics)

The three forward slashes ‘///’ are the consistent prefix of a what3words address – they’re not a web protocol or a typo; they signal that you’re looking at a what3words location (for example, ///filled.count.soap).

Let’s break it down:

  • /// – the three forward slashes that are the standard prefix for a what3words address
  • filled – first word (always lowercase)
  • . – dot (period) used as a separator (no spaces around it)
  • count – second word (always lowercase)
  • . – another dot separator
  • soap – third word (always lowercase)

In left-to-right scripts like Latin, Cyrillic or Greek, the entire address is written and read left-to-right, so the /// appears at the leftmost side, immediately before the first word. Because the format uses common characters and no spaces, it’s easy to recognise a what3words address in running text. The what3words team recommends always including the /// when displaying or sharing a what3words address. The /// prefix also helps computer systems or validation scripts identify it as a what3words address, even though word.word.word is often sufficient. Both ///word.word.word and word.word.word are accepted by the what3words API and other products.

Right-to-Left (RTL) scripts and what3words

Now, what about languages that are written right-to-left? Languages such as Arabic (العربية), Hebrew (עברית), Persian (فارسی), and Urdu (اردو) are among the languages supported by what3words that are written RTL. At first glance, an RTL what3words address might look a bit perplexing if you’re used to the English format – the /// appears on the right-hand side of the address when displayed. Let’s unpack what’s happening: in an RTL script, text flows from right to left. A what3words address in an RTL script is still logically composed in the same order to the reader. The triple slash is still a prefix – it comes before the three words in the address string. The apparent reversal on-screen is simply due to how browsers and apps render RTL text. In essence, the /// remains at the start of the address, but because the words that follow are RTL, the whole group is displayed right-to-left. For example, consider an address in Arabic. Suppose we have the Arabic what3words address where “الممتاز” is the first word, “قاعة” the second, “صحيحة” the third. The /// is typed first. If you were to type this into a text field that supports Arabic, it is entered in this logical order. Visually, the three words appear on the left of the slashes.

It’s important to stress: in all languages, the /// is a prefix, not a suffix. It appears on the right side for what3words addresses in RTL scripts because it will be read from right to left. You should always include the /// at the start when writing out a what3words address, regardless of language. This ensures the address is properly recognised by computers.

Language Name ISO code what3words API language code what3words Locale code Script Writing Direction /// marker logical position /// marker visual edge
Afrikaans af af Latin ltr prefix left
Amharic am am Ethiopic ltr prefix left
Arabic ar ar Arabic rtl prefix right
Bahasa Indonesia id id Latin ltr prefix left
Bahasa Malaysia ms ms Latin ltr prefix left
Bengali bn bn Bengali ltr prefix left
Bosnian bs oo oo_cy Cyrillic ltr prefix left
Bosnian bs oo oo_la Latin ltr prefix left
Bulgarian bg bg Cyrillic ltr prefix left
Catalan ca ca Latin ltr prefix left
Chinese zh zh zh_si Han (Simplified) ltr prefix left
Chinese zh zh zh_tr Han (Traditional) ltr prefix left
Croatian hr oo oo_cy Cyrillic ltr prefix left
Croatian hr oo oo_la Latin ltr prefix left
Czech cs cs Latin ltr prefix left
Danish da da Latin ltr prefix left
Dutch nl nl Latin ltr prefix left
English en en Latin ltr prefix left
Estonian et et Latin ltr prefix left
Finnish fi fi Latin ltr prefix left
French fr fr Latin ltr prefix left
German de de Latin ltr prefix left
Greek el el Greek ltr prefix left
Gujarati gu gu Gujarati ltr prefix left
Hebrew he he Hebrew rtl prefix right
Hindi hi hi Devanagari ltr prefix left
Hungarian hu hu Latin ltr prefix left
isiXhosa xh xh Latin ltr prefix left
isiZulu zu zu Latin ltr prefix left
Italian it it Latin ltr prefix left
Japanese ja ja Hiragana ltr prefix left
Kannada kn kn Kannada ltr prefix left
Kazakh kk kk kk_cy Cyrillic ltr prefix left
Kazakh kk kk kk_la Latin ltr prefix left
Khmer km km Khmer ltr prefix left
Korean ko ko Hangul ltr prefix left
Lao lo lo Lao ltr prefix left
Malayalam ml ml Malayalam ltr prefix left
Marathi mr mr Devanagari ltr prefix left
Mongolian mn mn mn_cy Cyrillic ltr prefix left
Mongolian mn mn mn_la Latin ltr prefix left
Montenegrin me oo oo_cy Cyrillic ltr prefix left
Montenegrin me oo oo_la Latin ltr prefix left
Nepali ne ne Devanagari ltr prefix left
Norwegian no no Latin ltr prefix left
Odia or or Oriya (Odia) ltr prefix left
Persian fa fa Arabic rtl prefix right
Polish pl pl Latin ltr prefix left
Portuguese pt pt Latin ltr prefix left
Punjabi pa pa Gurmukhi ltr prefix left
Romanian ro ro Latin ltr prefix left
Russian ru ru Cyrillic ltr prefix left
Serbian sr oo oo_cy Cyrillic ltr prefix left
Serbian sr oo oo_la Latin ltr prefix left
Sinhala si si Sinhala ltr prefix left
Slovak sk sk Latin ltr prefix left
Slovene sl sl Latin ltr prefix left
Spanish es es Latin ltr prefix left
Swahili sw sw Latin ltr prefix left
Swedish sv sv Latin ltr prefix left
Tamil ta ta Tamil ltr prefix left
Telugu te te Telugu ltr prefix left
Thai th th Thai ltr prefix left
Turkish tr tr Latin ltr prefix left
Ukrainian uk uk Cyrillic ltr prefix left
Urdu ur ur Arabic rtl prefix right
Vietnamese vi vi Latin ltr prefix left
Welsh cy cy Latin ltr prefix left