Pig Latin API

About the Pig Latin API

A Pig Latin translator API that converts English text to Pig Latin. Submit plain text strings along with an optional array of words you want untouched, and the endpoint converts each non-excluded word into standard Pig Latin and returns the transformed string, so "The square wooden crate" comes back as "Ethay uaresqay oodenway crate" when "crate" is excluded.

It is used in word-game and kids' learning apps, chat bots and Discord commands, novelty text generators and classroom exercises about how language rules work. Because capitalization, punctuation and line breaks survive the translation, you can pass in whole paragraphs and display the result as-is.

The exclusion list is useful for names, brands and technical terms that should stay readable. Any provided exclusion terms are trimmed of whitespace, de-duplicated, and confirmed in the response next to the translated text. The full response is available on every plan, including the Free plan.

How it works

Pig Latin uses the pig-latinizer library to translate text. Words are split on whitespace, slashes, underscores and dashes. A word that begins with a consonant has its leading consonant cluster moved to the end followed by "ay", so "packed" becomes "ackedpay"; a word that begins with a vowel gets "yay" appended, so "is" becomes "isyay". Y is treated as a consonant at the start of a word and as a vowel elsewhere.

Capitalization is carried over to the translated word, so "The" becomes "Ethay" and an all-caps word stays all caps. Punctuation, spaces, tabs and line breaks are preserved in place. Apostrophes inside contractions and possessives are removed so "don't" translates cleanly, and when a translation would end in a hard-to-read repeated consonant the library inserts a hyphen. Tokens with no sensible Pig Latin form, such as words containing digits, are passed through unchanged.

exclusions is an optional array of strings. Each entry must be a string; any other type returns a 400 error naming the bad index. Entries are trimmed and duplicates removed, and each remaining entry is added to the translator's exclusion list so matching words are output untranslated. The cleaned list is echoed back as exclusions, or as an empty array when none were sent. text in the response holds the translated string. There are no plan-dependent fields.

What people use it for

Word Game Mechanics

Word game developers transform clues or puzzle prompts into Pig Latin while keeping player names and brand terms intact.

Chat Filter Plugins

Social messaging platforms offer playful message filters that translate conversational dialogue on demand before posting to a room.

Linguistics Practice Tools

To teach phonetics and syllable structures, reading software converts sample vocabulary while protecting punctuation and specific instructional terms.

Spoiler Text Obfuscation

Obfuscate plot spoilers in community discussion boards so readers must decode the Pig Latin sentences manually to see details.

Ways to call it

One endpoint, many ways in — REST with JSON, XML, YAML and CSV, plus GraphQL and an MCP interface for AI agents.

JSON

Default REST response

XML

Markup format

YAML

Human-readable

CSV

Tabular export

Beta

GraphQL

Query language

New

MCP

For AI agents

Request parameters — POST /v1/piglatin

Sent as JSON in the request body. Premium parameters are accepted on every plan but only take effect on plans that include them. Anything not listed here is dropped rather than passed through.

Required

Optional

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curl -X POST "https://api.apiverve.com/v1/piglatin" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"text":"The square wooden crate was packed to be shipped. To have is better than to wait and hope.","exclusions":["crate","hope"]}'

Authentication

Send your key in the x-api-key header. That is the only auth step — no token exchange, and no per-endpoint scope to configure.

Response — POST /v1/piglatin

Every APIVerve endpoint returns the same three top-level keys, so one response handler covers your whole integration: status, error and data. Only data changes shape.

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{
  "status": "ok",
  "error": null,
  "data": {
    "text": "Ethay uaresqay oodenway crate asway ackedpay otay ebay ippedshay. Otay avehay isyay etterbay anthay otay aitway andyay hope.",
    "exclusions": [
      "crate",
      "hope"
    ]
  }
}

Response fields

Paths are relative to data. Premium fields are absent rather than zeroed on plans that do not include them, so check for presence instead of comparing to 0.

Response headers

Every response carries your balance, so your own code always knows where it stands without polling anything. All four are exposed to browsers through CORS.

Errors

Read the HTTP status first, then error for the specific reason. The body names the parameter that has to change.

What a call costs — 1 credits per call

Credits are shared across every APIVerve API — one balance, one key, one bill. Failed requests never count against it, so a rejected input costs nothing.

Calls are what the credits buy at this API's rate — spend them here, on any of the other APIs, or across both. Nothing is reserved per endpoint.

Zero-code embed — one snippet, no backend

Drop an interactive Pig Latin form onto any page. The widget calls the API for you, so no key ever appears in your markup and there is nothing to deploy.

Changelog — Pig Latin API

Every change to this endpoint, newest first. Breaking changes ship as a new version and the previous one keeps serving — response fields are added, never removed or retyped in place, so an integration written against v1 keeps working.

Currently v1