How to say “behind” in 47 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 Slovenian, where za is the 12th most used word.
- Afrikaans agter #256
- Albanian pas behind, beyond #103
- Arabic خلف #389
- Armenian հետև #684
- Basque atzean #276
- Bengali পিছনে #294
- Bosnian iza #366
- Bulgarian зад #406
- Catalan darrere behind, at the back #488
- Chinese 留下 to leave behind; to leave #165
- Croatian iza #382
- Czech za #32
- Danish bag #398
- Dutch achter #232
- English after Behind; later in time; following #161
- Esperanto malantaŭ behind, at the back of #795
- Estonian taha #127
- Finnish jätä to leave, leave behind #543
- French laisser to leave, to leave behind #323
- Galician atrás behind, in back of #491
- German hinter behind, after #419
- Greek πίσω behind, back #110
- Hebrew מאחורי behind, in back of #523
- Hindi पीछे #240
- Hungarian mögött #785
- Indonesian balik behind, rear, back-end #753
- Italian indietro back, behind, backwards #434
- Latvian aiz #282
- Lithuanian paskui following someone, behind #199
- Macedonian зад #380
- Malay belakang behind; following #282
- Malayalam പുറകിൽ behind, in back of #844
- Norwegian bak at the back, behind #335
- Persian دنبال rear; behind #146
- Portuguese atrás #265
- Romanian după #105
- Russian сзади #2,140
- Serbian iza #381
- Slovak opustiť to abandon, leave, leave behind #680
- Slovenian za #12
- Spanish atrás #474
- Swedish bakom #451
- Tagalog iwan to be left behind #643
- Tamil பின்னால் #251
- Telugu వెనుక behind, after, afterwards #164
- Turkish arkasında #960
- Vietnamese nấp to hide oneself behind something #2,086
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.