How to say “early” in 44 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.
- temprano/temˈpɾano/ Spanish
- рано[ˈranə] Russian
- مبكر/mu.bak.kir/ Arabic
- 일찍[iʎt͡ɕ͈ik̚] Korean
- νωρίς/noˈris/ Greek
- מוקדם/mukdom/ Hebrew
“early” in Spanish: temprano · French: tôt · German: früh · Portuguese: cedo · Korean: 일찍 · Russian: рано · Arabic: مبكر · Turkish: erken
It is commonest in Persian, where زود is the 168th most used word.
Early in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans vroeër/ˈfruːər/ #579
- Albanian herët/hɛɾət/ #544
- Arabic مبكر/mu.bak.kir/ #1,462
- Armenian շուտ/ʃut/ early, soon #260
- Bosnian ranije/ˈranɪje/ #454
- Bulgarian рано[ˈrano] #714
- Chinese 早上/t͡sɑʊ̯²¹⁴ ʂɑŋ⁴/ early morning #193
- Croatian ranije/ˈranɪje/ #560
- Czech brzy[ˈbr̩zɪ] #489
- Danish tidligere[ˈtˢiðliɐɐ] #513
- Dutch jeugd/ˈjøːxt/ young age, early stage of life #2,219
- English morning/ˈmoɹnɪŋ/ The early part of the day, especially from… #259
- Esperanto frue/ˈfrue/ #505
- Estonian vara/ˈvɑrɑ/ #828
- Finnish aiemmin/ˈɑi̯.emːin/ #557
- French tôt/to/ #577
- Galician cedo[ˈθeðʊ] early, soon, before expected #783
- Georgian ადრე[ädɾe̞] #312
- German früh/fʁyː/ #615
- Greek νωρίς/noˈris/ #847
- Hebrew מוקדם/mukdom/ #497
- Hungarian korán[ˈkoraːn] #1,181
- Icelandic fyrr/fɪr/ #225
- Korean 일찍[iʎt͡ɕ͈ik̚] #434
- Latvian agri/ˈaɡri/ early; adverbial form of agrs #1,415
- Lithuanian anksčiau[ɐŋk²ˈʃʲt͡ʃʲɛʊˑ] early, prematurely #242
- Macedonian рано[ˈranɔ] #1,055
- Malayalam നേരത്തെ/n̪eːɾɐt̪t̪e/ #219
- Norwegian tidligere/ˈtiːdlɪərə/ #549
- Persian زود[zuːd̪̥] #168
- Polish wcześnie/ˈft͡ʂɛɕ.ɲɛ/ #1,293
- Portuguese cedo/ˈse.du/ #649
- Romanian devreme/deˈvre.me/ #541
- Russian рано[ˈranə] #946
- Serbian ranije/ˈranɪje/ #421
- Slovak priskoro/priskɔrɔ/ too early #2,142
- Slovenian zgodaj/zɡóːdaj/ #547
- Spanish temprano/temˈpɾano/ early, early on #1,064
- Swedish tidigare/ˈtiːdiːˌɡarɛ/ #493
- Tagalog maaga/maˈʔaɡa/ #1,386
- Turkish erken/eɾˈcen/ #582
- Ukrainian рано[ˈranɔ] #627
- Urdu ابتدائی/ɪb.t̪ɪ.d̪ɑː.iː/ #1,289
- Vietnamese mai[maːj˧˧] early morning #443
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 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.