How to say “ago” in 35 different languages
Every one of these is a word that turns up in ordinary speech, not a dictionary curiosity — the number beside it is where it ranks in that language.
- hace/ˈaθe/ Spanish
- πριν/pɾin/ Greek
- წინათ[t͡sʼinätʰ] Georgian
- പണ്ട്/pɐɳɖɨ/ Malayalam
“ago” in Spanish: hace · French: voilà · Italian: fa · Greek: πριν
It is commonest in Catalan, where fa is the 81st most used word.
Ago in other languages, A to Z
- Armenian վաղուց/vɑˈʁut͡sʰ/ a long time ago, long ago #976
- Basque duela/duela/ #95
- Bosnian davno/dǎːʋno/ long ago #1,087
- Bulgarian някога[ˈnʲa̟koɡɐ] once, some time ago #383
- Catalan fa[ˈfa] #81
- Chinese 早就/t͡sɑʊ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹ t͡ɕi̯oʊ̯⁵¹/ long since; long ago; already at an earlier… #283
- Croatian davno/dǎːʋno/ long ago #1,025
- Czech dávno[ˈdaːvno] long ago #919
- Dutch geleden/ɣə.ˈleː.də(n)/ #277
- English lately/ˈleɪt.li/ Recently; not long ago; of late; not long… #1,662
- Estonian ammu/ˈɑmːu/ long ago #663
- French voilà/vwa.la/ it has been, ago #183
- Georgian წინათ[t͡sʼinätʰ] #1,108
- German längst/lɛŋst/ long ago, long #1,734
- Greek πριν/pɾin/ #108
- Hebrew מזמן/mizˈman/ Long ago, a long time ago #951
- Hungarian valaha[ˈvɒlɒhɒ] once, formerly, long ago, a long time ago,… #404
- Italian fa/ˈfa/ #102
- Korean 방금[pa̠ŋɡɯm] just a moment ago; just now #167
- Latvian sen[ˈsɛn] long ago, for a long time; adverbial form of… #480
- Lithuanian seniai/sɛˈnʲɐɪ/ long ago #331
- Macedonian одамна[ˈɔdamna] long ago #653
- Malay lepas/ləpas/ after, past, ago #347
- Malayalam പണ്ട്/pɐɳɖɨ/ #438
- Norwegian nettopp/ˈnɛˌtɔp/ just; moments ago, recently #339
- Polish temu/ˈtɛ.mu/ #165
- Romanian demult/deˈmult/ long time ago #1,994
- Russian давно[dɐvˈno] long ago #459
- Serbian davno/dǎːʋno/ long ago #1,069
- Slovenian pravkar/práʋkar/ just, moments ago #204
- Spanish hace/ˈaθe/ #109
- Tagalog kamakailan/kamakaʔiˈlan/ some days ago #1,934
- Turkish çoktan/t͡ʃokˈtan/ a long time ago #677
- Ukrainian давно[dɐu̯ˈnɔ] long ago, a long time ago, long since #299
- Urdu قبل/qəbl/ previous, before, ago #665
The speaker reads the word in the voice the LangX app uses for that language — synthesised, not a recording of a native speaker, so treat it as a guide. A row without a button has no reading we are free to use, or none we trust, yet. Voices for Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), CC BY-SA 4.0), Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 4.0) and Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.