How to say “around” in 46 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.
It is commonest in Tagalog, where mga is the 11th most used word.
- Albanian gati almost, around #135
- Arabic حول #118
- Armenian կողմ around, at about #439
- Basque alde #92
- Bengali কাছে near, around #54
- Bosnian oko around, about, roughly, approximately #207
- Bulgarian около round, around #282
- Chinese 左右 about; or so; or thereabouts; around;… #620
- Croatian oko around, about, roughly, approximately #211
- Czech kolem #443
- Danish rundt round, around #351
- Dutch om around, about #29
- English about In a circle around; all round; on every side… #51
- Esperanto ĉirkaŭ #475
- Estonian ümber #375
- Finnish ympäri #869
- French autour #809
- Galician arredor #813
- Georgian გარშემო #1,121
- German darum around it, around that #423
- Greek γύρω around, close by #495
- Hebrew סביב #770
- Hindi चारों all four, around #474
- Hungarian körül around, near #741
- Icelandic kringum #663
- Indonesian sekitar #328
- Italian intorno around, round #960
- Latvian ap round, around #648
- Lithuanian arti nearby, close, around #562
- Macedonian околу #220
- Malayalam മോതിരം ring worn around finger #429
- Norwegian om #28
- Polish obchodzi to walk around, to go around #676
- Russian вокруг round, around, about #705
- Serbian oko around, about, roughly, approximately #203
- Slovak okolo #258
- Slovenian po around, about #48
- Spanish cerca close, near, around, about, nearly, nigh #380
- Swedish runt around; aimlessly #334
- Tagalog mga approximately; around; about #11
- Tamil சுற்றி #150
- Telugu చుట్టూ all around #91
- Turkish etrafında #1,278
- Ukrainian навколо around, about, round #753
- Urdu تقریبا around, about, approximately, close to,… #402
- Vietnamese máy to move around #245
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.