Make default "Strings to remove" translatable

So wouldn't you just edit the textfield at admin/config/search/path/settings to use french words then?

http://api.drupal.org/api/drupal/includes--bootstrap.inc/function/t/7 says:

You should never use t() to translate variables, [...]

So no, this will not happen. As Dave said, simply change the words in your local setup. For multilingual sites, the Internationalization suite has a module for translating site variables, including the "Strings to remove" one.

It *is* a variable. Hence variable_get() is used. You are able to change the value of this variable at admin/config/search/path/settings. Trust me, you can.

You cannot use t() with define(). The item has to be a string or numeric value only, and cannot be the return value of a function.

The other problem for this is this string shouldn't be translated per say, it's the list of the language's short words that do not have meaning - they may not all translated 100% from English to the desired language, or the language may have additional words that should be ignored.

bump. See this issue on several Dutch sites, where some words disappear in the alias while others stay and the owners are unaware. It would be better for localisation to make this string translatable. An alternative would be that the default of the field is blank and have the words as suggestions in the description of the field, and not as default value.

@Dave Is there a reason that a constant is used and not a variable_set() in pathauto_install()?

pathauto_install()
+variable_set('pathauto_ignore_words', t('a, an, as, at, before, but, by, for, from, is, in, into, like, of, off, on, onto, per, since, than, the, this, that, to, up, via, with'));

For multilingual sites, the Internationalization suite has a module for translating site variables, including the "Strings to remove" one.

Could someone tell me where to find this?

I can't find it in admin/config/regional/i18n/variable.

The other problem for this is this string shouldn't be translated per say, it's the list of the language's short words that do not have meaning - they may not all translated 100% from English to the desired language, or the language may have additional words that should be ignored.

Which doesn't mean at all that the string couldn't be a candidate for translating. Translation, or in this case: localisation, does not mean mapping each word 1:1. It's taking the essence/meaning of a given string and convert it to make sense in the target language/locale. A string of small commonly used words that should likely not be used in a path alias which is overly English-ish would be a good candidate for localisation.

However, as has been said elsewhere in this issue, there are two good ways to do just this, depending on the site in question (whether it be mono- or multi-lingual).

@dolu:
You can read about variable translation on https://drupal.org/node/1113374 - the variable in question is "pathauto_ignore_words".

@Freso:
Thanks for pointing me to this page. That's exactly where I expected to find this variable, however it is not available.

Am I missing something?
I'm using pathauto 7.x-1.2

@Freso Still an interesting discussion. In the API is indeed mentioned that you shouldn't use t() for variables, but mentioned are php variables (t($text)), not a Drupal persistent variable default. Translation of the default of Drupal variables is done in Drupal core itself as well, for example in
http://api.drupal.org/api/drupal/modules!system!system.admin.inc/functio...
'#default_value' => variable_get('maintenance_mode_message', t('@site is currently under maintenance. We should be back shortly. Thank you for your patience.', array('@site' => variable_get('site_name', 'Drupal')))),
The exact same logic to add t() for the default value of the variable we could use in

  $form['pathauto_ignore_words'] = array(
    '#type' => 'textarea',
    '#title' => t('Strings to Remove'),
    '#default_value' => variable_get('pathauto_ignore_words', PATHAUTO_IGNORE_WORDS),
    '#description' => t('Words to strip out of the URL alias, separated by commas. Do not use this to remove punctuation.'),
    '#wysiwyg' => FALSE,
  );

This way, the variable is translatable, and, when this module gets installed, gets directly the right language, without the need for i18n. See also a discussion in external links module #672500: Translatable Variable Defaults

https://www.drupal.org/project/pathauto/issues/2630382