How to say “change” in 49 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 Vietnamese, where trở is the 185th most used word.
- Afrikaans wysig to edit, change, modify #2,021
- Albanian ndryshuar to change, to alter, to modify #602
- Arabic تغير to change, to be altered #633
- Armenian փոխվել to change, to alter #855
- Basque aldatu to change #216
- Bosnian promijeniti to change #1,095
- Bulgarian променя to change, to alter #933
- Catalan canvi #558
- Chinese 成為 to become; to turn into; to change into #1,021
- Croatian promijeniti to change #759
- Czech změnit to change #867
- Danish ændre to change, to alter #765
- Dutch veranderen to change #588
- English move To change place or posture; to go, in any… #272
- Esperanto ŝanĝi to change #706
- Estonian liikuma to move to change one's position or location,… #918
- Finnish muuttaa to modify, change, alter, amend #688
- French tourne to turn; to change; to rotate; to spin #1,235
- Galician cambio to change #706
- Georgian ცვლილება alteration, change, mutation, permutation,… #1,128
- German ändern to change, to alter #806
- Greek αλλαγή change, differentiation, replacement #1,115
- Hebrew שינוי A change #764
- Hindi बदल #317
- Hungarian változott to change #1,935
- Icelandic skipti a change, an exchange #395
- Indonesian berubah to change, to shift #351
- Latvian mainīt to change, to exchange #1,240
- Lithuanian pakeisti #510
- Macedonian промени change, alteration #674
- Malay berubah to change, to shift #384
- Malayalam മാറ്റം #470
- Norwegian forandret to change, alter #995
- Persian تغییر change, modification #764
- Polish zmienić to change #815
- Portuguese mudar to change #534
- Romanian restul #572
- Russian изменить to change, to alter, to modify, to edit #1,209
- Serbian promeniti to change #1,312
- Slovak zmeniť to change, to alter, to modify #485
- Slovenian spremeniti to change, to modify, to alter #520
- Spanish vuelta #428
- Swedish ändra to change, to alter #971
- Tagalog pagbabago #1,191
- Tamil மாற்றம் #398
- Turkish değişiklik change, edit #1,615
- Ukrainian змінити to change, to alter, to modify #999
- Urdu تبدیل change, replace #191
- Vietnamese trở to turn, to change #185
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.