How to say “direction” in 45 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.
- dirección/diɾeɡˈθjon/ Spanish
- 方向/fɑŋ⁵⁵ ɕi̯ɑŋ⁵¹/ Chinese
- திசை/t̪ɪtʃɐɪ̯/ Tamil
- جانب/d͡ʒɑː.nɪb/ Urdu
“direction” in Spanish: dirección · Chinese: 方向
It is commonest in Icelandic, where átt is the 120th most used word.
Direction in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans adres/aˈdrɛs/ address, direction #588
- Albanian drejtim/dɾɛjtim/ #985
- Arabic نحو/naħwa/ towards, in the direction of, after, in… #354
- Armenian դեպի/deˈpi/ toward, to, in the direction of #141
- Bengali আদেশ/ad̪eʃ/ command, order; direction #451
- Bosnian kuda/ˈkudɐ/ which way, in what direction #798
- Bulgarian нататък[nɐˈtatɐk] that way, in that direction #1,065
- Catalan enrere[ənˈre.ɾə] back, backwards; in the direction opposite to… #581
- Chinese 方向/fɑŋ⁵⁵ ɕi̯ɑŋ⁵¹/ direction; orientation #411
- Croatian kamo/kâmo/ where, in which direction, whither #506
- Czech směrem[ˈsm̩ɲɛrɛm] #1,349
- Danish retning/rɛtneŋ/ #1,596
- Dutch richting/ˈrɪx.tɪŋ/ in the direction of #1,215
- English off/ɔf/ In a direction away from the speaker or other… #128
- Estonian tagasi/ˈtɑɡ̊ɑsi/ In the opposite direction #54
- Finnish suuntaan/ˈsuːntaːn/ #1,425
- Galician a/a/ to, toward; indicating direction of motion #2
- Georgian მხარეს[mχäɾe̞s] side; direction #1,247
- German hin/hɪn/ there, thither; denotes direction towards a… #248
- Greek διεύθυνση/ðiˈefθinˌsi/ management, direction, directorate,… #1,091
- Hebrew כלפי/klaˈpei/ To, toward: proceeding toward, in the… #1,021
- Hindi ओर/oːɾ/ side, face, direction #255
- Hungarian ki[ˈki] out, not inside, from the inside, in an… #27
- Icelandic átt[ˈauht] #120
- Indonesian terus/təˈrus/ of a direction relative to the subject,… #218
- Italian verso/ˈvɛr.so/ in the direction of #521
- Korean 일로[iɭɭo̞] over in this direction, hither #474
- Macedonian правец[ˈpravɛt͡s] #1,335
- Malay di/di/ Used to indicate location or direction; in,… #8
- Malayalam സംവിധാനം/sämvid̪ʱäːnɐm/ direction in cinema, drama or an art form #519
- Norwegian retning/ˈrɛtnɪŋ/ #2,060
- Persian ور[væɹ] side, way, direction #973
- Polish kierunku/kjɛˈruŋ.ku/ #1,781
- Romanian încoace/ɨnˈkɔatʃe/ hither, here, this way, in my direction #1,108
- Serbian kuda/ˈkudɐ/ which way, in what direction #708
- Slovak smerom/smerɔm/ #606
- Slovenian smer/sméːr/ #427
- Spanish dirección/diɾeɡˈθjon/ #828
- Swedish ner/neːr/ down; in a direction downwards #126
- Tagalog papunta/papunˈta/ heading towards a direction #392
- Tamil திசை/t̪ɪtʃɐɪ̯/ direction, cardinal points #888
- Telugu పక్క/pakːa/ a side, quarter, or direction #304
- Ukrainian по[pɔ] in the direction of #51
- Urdu جانب/d͡ʒɑː.nɪb/ direction, side #678
- Vietnamese phía[fiə˧˦] side, way, direction #402
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), Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 4.0), Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 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.