You can add this few lines in your functions.php theme file
$text_domain = 'the-events-calendar';
$original_language_file = ABSPATH . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'wp-content' . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'plugins' . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'the-events-calendar' . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'languages' . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'the-events-calendar-fr_FR.mo';
$override_language_file = ABSPATH . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'wp-content' . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'themes' . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'your-own-theme' . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'languages' . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'the-events-calendar-fr_FR.override.mo';
// Unload the translation for the text domain of the plugin
unload_textdomain($text_domain);
// Load first the override file
load_textdomain($text_domain, $override_language_file );
// Then load the original translation file
load_textdomain($text_domain, $original_language_file );
You'll have to replace the two file variables with the actual language file.
But we'll suppose that the french language file is in the plugin language folder and your override language file is in the language theme folder.
The idea is to :
- Un load the language that has already been loaded automatically by WP
- Load your override file first. This is important to load it first, because already defined translations will be skipped when you'll load another language file for this text domain (see WP core).
- Load the original translation file, which will in fact load all the untranslated strings of the override file.
This works only with compiled mo file.
You can only add to your override file the few strings you want to override.