I guess you need exactly the inverse conversion: User enters "penpals/language/spanish" and you get "viewListings.php?language=spanish" internally. I didn't check the code, but it shouldn't be far from this: RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule ^penpals/([^/]+)/([^/]+)$ viewListings.php?$1=$2 [L] Code (markup):