How to say “bit” in 40 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.
- একটু/ekʈu/ Bengali
- ముక్క/mukːa/ Telugu
- трішки[ˈtʲrʲiʃke] Ukrainian
- خرده[xoɹ.d̪e] Persian
“bit” in German: bisschen · Turkish: biraz
It is commonest in Turkish, where biraz is the 52nd most used word.
Bit in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans bietjie/biki/ a little; a bit; fairly #113
- Albanian paksa[ˈpaksa] a little, a bit #947
- Armenian մասն/ˈmasən/ part, piece; bit, morsel #642
- Bengali একটু/ekʈu/ a bit, a little #81
- Bosnian pomalo/pǒmalo/ a little bit #988
- Bulgarian нещо[ˈnɛʃto] slightly, a bit, somewhat #41
- Catalan mica[ˈmi.kə] a bit, a small piece #156
- Chinese 一點/i⁵⁵⁻⁵¹ ti̯ɛn²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/ a little; a bit #464
- Croatian pomalo/pǒmalo/ a little bit #983
- Czech trochu[ˈtroxu] a bit; a little #126
- Danish noget/nɔːəð/ a little, a bit, somewhat #40
- Dutch beetje/ˈbeːtjə/ a bit, a little bit, somewhat #260
- Esperanto kelkajn/ˈkelkai̯n/ some; a few; a bit #511
- Finnish hieman/ˈhie̯mɑn/ a little, bit, tad, slightly #359
- French morceau/mɔʁ.so/ piece, slice, bit, morsel #1,576
- Galician chisco/ˈt͡ʃisko̝/ a bit, a small amount #1,977
- German bisschen/ˈbɪsən/ bit; little #395
- Greek κάπως/ˈka.pos/ somewhat, kind of, a bit #636
- Hebrew קצת/ˈkt͡sat/ A little, a bit, a little bit #96
- Hindi लव/ləʋ/ a particle, bit, fragment #2,153
- Icelandic ögn[ˈœkn̥] a tiny bit, particle #2,307
- Indonesian potongan/poˈtoŋan/ bit, part, piece, share, slice #1,730
- Korean 조금[t͡ɕo̞ɡɯm] a little; a bit #240
- Latvian mazliet/maˈzliet/ a bit of #314
- Lithuanian palauk[pɐ¹ˈlɑˑʊk] to wait a bit; to hang on #137
- Macedonian малце[ˈmaɫt͡sɛ] a tad, a bit, very little #2,260
- Malayalam തുണ്ട്/t̪uɳɖɨ/ piece; fragment; bit #1,633
- Norwegian litt/ˈlɪt/ a bit, a little #92
- Persian خرده[xoɹ.d̪e] #1,557
- Polish nieco/ˈɲɛ.t͡sɔ/ somewhat, a little bit, a little, slightly #1,206
- Portuguese meio/ˈmej.u/ a little bit, somewhat #438
- Romanian bucată/buˈka.tə/ piece, bit, fragment, morsel #1,458
- Serbian pomalo/pǒmalo/ a little bit #897
- Spanish rato/ˈrato/ a while, bit #960
- Tagalog parte/paɾˈte/ part; bit; portion; section; particular… #792
- Tamil கொஞ்சம்/koɲdʒɐm/ some, somewhat, a bit, a little; for a while #195
- Telugu ముక్క/mukːa/ bit, piece, fragment #375
- Turkish biraz/biˈɾaz/ a bit, a little #52
- Ukrainian трішки[ˈtʲrʲiʃke] a bit, a little, a little bit, slightly #1,375
- Vietnamese khoan[xwaːn˧˧] to wait a bit #620
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) 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.