Call the $t method on the shared Vue instance programmatically in Nuxt

nuxt-i18n-programmatic-2.ts

// later versions of Nuxt have errors with original code
import VueI18n from 'vue-i18n';

/**
 * Translate a string
 *
 * @param {string} key
 *
 * @returns {string}
 */
const intl = function(key: string): string {
  try {
    const i18n = new VueI18n({
      locale: 'en',
      fallbackLocale: 'en',
      messages: {
        en: require('@/lang/en.json'),
      },
    });

    return i18n.t(key).toString();
  } catch (e) {
    console.error(e);
  }

  return key;
};

export default intl;

nuxt-i18n-programmatic.ts

import Vue from 'vue';

/**
 * Translate a string
 *
 * @param {string} key
 *
 * @returns {string}
 */
const intl = function(key: string): string {
  // access the current vue instance and alias it for export
  return Vue.prototype.$nuxt.$t(key);
};

export default intl;