How to say “back” in 52 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.
- назад[nɐˈzat] Russian
- 뒤[tɥi(ː)] Korean
- वापस/ʋɑː.pəs/ Hindi
- חזרה/χazaˈʁa/ Hebrew
- უკან[ukʼän] Georgian
- ետ/jet/ Armenian
“back” in German: zurück · Korean: 뒤 · Russian: назад · Hindi: वापस · Turkish: geri
It is commonest in Icelandic, where aftur is the 46th most used word.
Back in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans rug/rœχ/ #615
- Albanian dalë/dalə/ back, backwards #406
- Arabic أخر/ʔaxxara/ to postpone, to set back, to hold back, to… #334
- Armenian ետ/jet/ back, backward #294
- Basque itzuli/it͡s̻uli/ to return, to come back #125
- Bengali পাছা/pat͡ʃʰa/ back, rear #1,292
- Bosnian vratiti/ʋrǎːtiti/ to return, come back #324
- Bulgarian обратно[oˈbratno] #429
- Catalan aleshores[ə.ləˈzɔ.ɾəs] then, back then, in those times #407
- Chinese 回去/xu̯eɪ̯³⁵ t͡ɕʰy⁵¹/ to return; to go back; to go; to leave #87
- Croatian vratiti/ʋrǎːtiti/ to return, come back #275
- Czech zpátky[ˈspaːtkɪ] back, backwards #211
- Danish tilbage/teˈbaːjə/ #85
- Dutch terug/təˈrʏx/ backwards, back #105
- English behind/ˈbiˌhaɪnd/ At or to the back or far side of #467
- Esperanto revenos/reˈvenos/ to come back, return #284
- Estonian taga/ˈtɑɡ̊ɑ/ at the back #344
- Finnish takaisin/ˈtɑkɑi̯sin/ #101
- French rentrer/ʁɑ̃.tʁe/ to go back, to re-enter #517
- Galician daquela/daˈkɛla/ then, back then #216
- Georgian უკან[ukʼän] back, backwards #131
- German zurück/t͡suˈʁʏk/ back, backward, backwards, to the rear #160
- Greek πίσω/ˈpiso/ behind, back #110
- Hebrew חזרה/χazaˈʁa/ #361
- Hindi वापस/ʋɑː.pəs/ #93
- Hungarian hát[ˈhaːt] #66
- Icelandic aftur[ˈaftʏr] back, backwards #46
- Indonesian belakang/bəˈlakaŋ/ #383
- Italian tornare/torˈna.re/ to return, to come back #359
- Korean 뒤[tɥi(ː)] back, latter, rear #540
- Latvian atpakaļ/ˈatpakaʎ/ #125
- Lithuanian atgal[ɐd²ˈɡɐlˑ] back, backwards #208
- Macedonian назад[ˈnazat] backward, in the back #218
- Malay balik/ˈbalek/ #221
- Malayalam തിരിച്ച്/t̪iɾit͡ʃt͡ʃɨ/ #146
- Norwegian tilbake/tɪlˈbɑːkə/ #98
- Persian برگرد/bæɾɡæɾd/ to return, to come back #448
- Polish wtedy/ˈftɛ.dɘ/ back then, then #190
- Portuguese volta/ˈvɔw.tɐ/ to return; to come back #212
- Romanian înapoi/ɨ.naˈpoj/ #196
- Russian назад[nɐˈzat] back, backward, backwards #183
- Serbian vratiti/ʋrǎːtiti/ to return, come back #390
- Slovak späť/spæc/ #137
- Slovenian nazaj/nazàːj/ #93
- Spanish regresar/reɡɾeˈsaɾ/ to return, go back, come back #1,041
- Swedish tillbaka/tɪlˈbɑːka/ back, in return #105
- Tagalog bumalik/bumaˈlik/ to return; to come back #230
- Tamil திரும்பு/t̪ɪɾʊmbɯ/ to turn, turn back, return #890
- Turkish geri[ɟeɾi] back, backwards #69
- Ukrainian назад[nɐˈzad] back, backward, backwards #160
- Urdu واپس/ʋɑː.pəs/ #76
- Vietnamese trả[t͡ɕaː˧˩] to return; to give back #242
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.