How to say “bit” in 40 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 Danish, where noget is the 40th most used word.
- Afrikaans bietjie a little; a bit; fairly #113
- Albanian paksa a little, a bit #947
- Armenian մասն part, piece; bit, morsel #642
- Bengali একটু a bit, a little #81
- Bosnian pomalo a little bit #988
- Bulgarian нещо slightly, a bit, somewhat #41
- Catalan mica a bit, a small piece #156
- Chinese 一點 a little; a bit #464
- Croatian pomalo a little bit #983
- Czech trochu a bit; a little #126
- Danish noget a little, a bit, somewhat #40
- Dutch beetje a bit, a little bit, somewhat #260
- Esperanto kelkajn some; a few; a bit #511
- Finnish hieman a little, bit, tad, slightly #359
- French morceau piece, slice, bit, morsel #1,576
- Galician chisco a bit, a small amount #1,977
- German bisschen bit; little #395
- Greek κάπως somewhat, kind of, a bit #636
- Hebrew קצת A little, a bit, a little bit #96
- Hindi लव a particle, bit, fragment #2,153
- Icelandic ögn a tiny bit, particle #2,307
- Indonesian potongan bit, part, piece, share, slice #1,730
- Korean 조금 a little; a bit #240
- Latvian mazliet a bit of #314
- Lithuanian palauk to wait a bit; to hang on #137
- Macedonian малце a tad, a bit, very little #2,260
- Malayalam തുണ്ട് piece; fragment; bit #1,633
- Norwegian litt a bit, a little #92
- Persian خرده #1,557
- Polish nieco somewhat, a little bit, a little, slightly #1,206
- Portuguese meio a little bit, somewhat #438
- Romanian bucată piece, bit, fragment, morsel #1,458
- Serbian pomalo a little bit #897
- Spanish rato a while, bit #960
- Tagalog parte part; bit; portion; section; particular… #792
- Tamil கொஞ்சம் some, somewhat, a bit, a little; for a while #195
- Telugu ముక్క bit, piece, fragment #375
- Turkish biraz a bit, a little #52
- Ukrainian трішки a bit, a little, a little bit, slightly #1,375
- Vietnamese khoan to wait a bit #620
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.