How to say “always” in 53 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.
- siempre/ˈsjempɾe/ Spanish
- всегда[fsʲɪɡˈda] Russian
- دائما/daː.ʔi.man/ Arabic
- 一向/i⁵⁵⁻³⁵ ɕi̯ɑŋ⁵¹/ Chinese
- 항상[ha̠ŋsʰa̠ŋ] Korean
- हमेशा/ɦə.meː.ʃɑː/ Hindi
“always” in Spanish: siempre · French: toujours · Italian: sempre · Portuguese: sempre · Chinese: 一向 · Korean: 항상 · Russian: всегда · Arabic: دائما
It is commonest in Telugu, where ఎప్పుడూ is the 59th most used word.
Always in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans altyd/ˈal.təi̯t/ #104
- Albanian gjithmonë/ɟiθmɔnə/ always, all the time #169
- Arabic دائما/daː.ʔi.man/ #187
- Armenian միշտ/miʃt/ #256
- Basque beti/beti/ #72
- Bengali সবসময়/ʃɔbʃɔmɔe̯/ all the time, always #757
- Bosnian uvijek/ûʋjeːk/ #162
- Bulgarian винаги[ˈvinɐɡi] #143
- Catalan sempre[ˈsem.pɾə] #125
- Chinese 一向/i⁵⁵⁻³⁵ ɕi̯ɑŋ⁵¹/ always; consistently; all along #1,093
- Croatian uvijek/ûʋjeːk/ #109
- Czech pořád[ˈpor̝aːt] always, constantly #133
- Danish altid/altid/ #154
- Dutch altijd/ˈɑl.tɛi̯t/ #140
- English usually/ˈjuːʒʊəli/ Most of the time; less than always, but more… #1,097
- Esperanto ĉiam/ˈt͡ʃiam/ at all times, always #99
- Estonian ikka/ˈikːɑ/ #152
- Finnish aina/ˈɑi̯nɑ/ #96
- French toujours/tu.ʒuʁ/ #119
- Galician sempre/ˈsɛmpɾe/ #110
- Georgian ყოველთვის[χʼo̞ve̞ltʰʷis] #113
- German heim/haɪ̯m/ home, to the house; always as a direction,… #1,226
- Greek πάντα/ˈpan.da/ #109
- Hebrew תמיד/taˈmid/ Always, regularly #131
- Hindi हमेशा/ɦə.meː.ʃɑː/ #173
- Hungarian mindig[ˈmindiɡ] #61
- Icelandic alltaf[ˈal̥t.aːv] #98
- Indonesian selalu/səlalu/ always; forever; evermore #145
- Italian sempre/ˈsɛm.pre/ #118
- Korean 항상[ha̠ŋsʰa̠ŋ] #118
- Latvian vienmēr[ˈviɛ̯̂nmǣːɾ] always; permanently; constantly; at any time #135
- Lithuanian visada[ʋʲɪsɐˈdɐ] always, constantly #147
- Macedonian секогаш[ˈsɛkɔɡaʃ] #133
- Malay selalu/sə.la.lu/ always; forever; evermore #222
- Malayalam എപ്പോഴും/eppoːɻum/ always; invariably, uniformly #99
- Norwegian alltid/ˈɑlˌtiːd/ #152
- Persian هی[hej] repeatedly, continuously, always; keep #181
- Polish zawsze/ˈzaf.ʂɛ/ #105
- Portuguese sempre/ˈsẽ.pɾi/ #122
- Romanian mereu/meˈɾeʊ/ always, ever, continuously, constantly #274
- Russian всегда[fsʲɪɡˈda] #130
- Serbian uvek/ûʋeːk/ #123
- Slovak stále/staːʎe/ always, all the time #80
- Slovenian vedno/ʋèːdnɔ/ #60
- Spanish siempre/ˈsjempɾe/ #125
- Swedish alltid/²alːtiːd/ #148
- Tagalog parati/paˈɾati/ #226
- Tamil நின்று/nɪnrɯ/ always, permanently #593
- Telugu ఎప్పుడూ/ˈʲeppuɖuː/ #59
- Turkish daima/daː.i.maː/ #1,007
- Ukrainian завжди[ˈzau̯ʒde] #143
- Urdu ہمیشہ/ɦə.meː.ʃɑ(ː)/ #122
- Vietnamese luôn[luən˧˧] #191
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 Bengali (google (bn_BD), CC BY-SA 4.0), Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), CC BY-SA 4.0), Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 4.0), Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0) and Vietnamese (vais1000 (vi_VN), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.