diff --git a/doc/help.json b/doc/help.json
index b1cfbfa560..b575aa47bc 100644
--- a/doc/help.json
+++ b/doc/help.json
@@ -588,7 +588,7 @@
         {
             "long": "key-language",
             "desc": "Specify the language used for module keys",
-            "remark": "Leave empty for auto-detection based on the system locale",
+            "remark": "Leave empty for auto-detection based on the system locale. Unsupported locales fall back to English",
             "arg": {
                 "type": "enum",
                 "default": "en",
diff --git a/src/options/display.c b/src/options/display.c
index 36d408f78b..2fb18a3e3a 100644
--- a/src/options/display.c
+++ b/src/options/display.c
@@ -17,7 +17,9 @@
 // @returns offsetof(FFModuleDisplayName, <language>)
 // @see src/common/option.h
 static uint32_t optionParseLanguageString(FFstrbuf* language) {
-    if (language->length == 0) {
+    const bool detected = language->length == 0;
+
+    if (detected) {
 #if !FF_MODULE_DISABLE_LOCALE
         const char* error = ffDetectLocale(language);
         if (__builtin_expect(error != nullptr, false)) {
@@ -52,7 +54,7 @@ static uint32_t optionParseLanguageString(FFstrbuf* language) {
 
     // The language code is expected to be in the format of "en", "en_US", "de", "de_DE", etc.
     // First try to match the full language code, then try to match just the first two characters (the language part).
-    // If no match is found, report a language not supported error.
+    // If no match is found, report a language not supported error, unless the language was auto-detected.
     // en_US -> offsetof(FFModuleDisplayName, en)
     // en -> offsetof(FFModuleDisplayName, en)
     // zh_CN -> offsetof(FFModuleDisplayName, zh_CN)
@@ -85,6 +87,10 @@ static uint32_t optionParseLanguageString(FFstrbuf* language) {
 #pragma GCC diagnostic pop
 
 error:
+    // The user asked for the system locale, not for this specific language. Most locales have no
+    // translation, so falling back to English is friendlier than aborting fastfetch entirely.
+    if (detected) return offsetof(FFModuleDisplayName, en);
+
     fprintf(stderr, "Error: Language '%s' is not supported\n", language->chars);
     exit(477);
 }