How to say “busy” in 30 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 Afrikaans, where besig is the 316th most used word.
- Afrikaans besig #316
- Arabic مشغول #709
- Basque jardun to be busy doing something #974
- Bengali ব্যস্ত #617
- Chinese 大忙 very busy #2,460
- Danish travlt #676
- Dutch bezig busy, occupied #472
- French occupée #2,237
- Georgian დაკავებული busy, occupied #745
- German beschäftigt #1,192
- Greek ήσυχο quiet, calm, not busy #1,367
- Hebrew עסוק #789
- Hindi व्यस्त busy, involved, engaged #861
- Hungarian elfoglalt occupied, busy #1,621
- Icelandic upptekinn busy, occupied #872
- Indonesian sibuk #635
- Italian presa busy, taken up, preoccupied #895
- Korean 길거리 a thoroughfare; a busy street #2,208
- Lithuanian užsiėmęs busy, occupied, engaged #841
- Macedonian зафатен #874
- Malay sibuk #636
- Norwegian opptatt #776
- Persian مشغول busy, occupied #932
- Polish zajęta busy, occupied, engaged #2,361
- Portuguese ocupado #1,317
- Swedish upptagen busy, engaged in activity #1,029
- Tagalog bisi busy; occupied #2,430
- Turkish meşgul #1,091
- Urdu مصروف busy, occupied, engaged #886
- Vietnamese rảnh free; unoccupied; not busy #1,814
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.