How to say “back” in 52 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 Icelandic, where aftur is the 46th most used word.
- Afrikaans rug #615
- Albanian dalë back, backwards #406
- Arabic أخر to postpone, to set back, to hold back, to… #334
- Armenian ետ back, backward #294
- Basque itzuli to return, to come back #125
- Bengali পাছা back, rear #1,292
- Bosnian vratiti to return, come back #324
- Bulgarian обратно #429
- Catalan aleshores then, back then, in those times #407
- Chinese 回去 to return; to go back; to go; to leave #87
- Croatian vratiti to return, come back #275
- Czech zpátky back, backwards #211
- Danish tilbage #85
- Dutch terug backwards, back #105
- English behind At or to the back or far side of #467
- Esperanto revenos to come back, return #284
- Estonian taga at the back #344
- Finnish takaisin #101
- French rentrer to go back, to re-enter #517
- Galician daquela then, back then #216
- Georgian უკან back, backwards #131
- German zurück back, backward, backwards, to the rear #160
- Greek πίσω behind, back #110
- Hebrew חזרה #361
- Hindi वापस #93
- Hungarian hát #66
- Icelandic aftur back, backwards #46
- Indonesian belakang #383
- Italian tornare to return, to come back #359
- Korean 뒤 back, latter, rear #540
- Latvian atpakaļ #125
- Lithuanian atgal back, backwards #208
- Macedonian назад backward, in the back #218
- Malay balik #221
- Malayalam തിരിച്ച് #146
- Norwegian tilbake #98
- Persian برگرد to return, to come back #448
- Polish wtedy back then, then #190
- Portuguese volta to return; to come back #212
- Romanian înapoi #196
- Russian назад back, backward, backwards #183
- Serbian vratiti to return, come back #390
- Slovak späť #137
- Slovenian nazaj #93
- Spanish regresar to return, go back, come back #1,041
- Swedish tillbaka back, in return #105
- Tagalog bumalik to return; to come back #230
- Tamil திரும்பு to turn, turn back, return #890
- Turkish geri back, backwards #69
- Ukrainian назад back, backward, backwards #160
- Urdu واپس #76
- Vietnamese trả to return; to give back #242
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.