How to say “excuse” in 35 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 Polish, where przepraszam is the 90th most used word.
- Arabic معذرة #659
- Armenian ներողություն excuse me “forgiveness” #567
- Bengali বাহানা #2,263
- Bulgarian извинявам to forgive, excuse, pardon #1,366
- Catalan perdona to pardon, forgive, excuse #502
- Chinese 原諒 to forgive; to excuse; to pardon #1,692
- Czech promiň sorry! excuse me! #254
- Danish undskyld to excuse #127
- Dutch sorry sorry, pardon, excuse me #197
- English apologize To make an apology or excuse; to acknowledge… #1,397
- Esperanto pardonpetas to excuse oneself, ask for forgiveness #769
- Estonian vabandage excuse me, pardon me #412
- French pardon excuse me #376
- Georgian უკაცრავად excuse me, sorry #237
- German entschuldigen to excuse someone #544
- Greek συγχωρείτε to forgive, pardon, excuse #508
- Hebrew תירוץ #1,814
- Hindi मिस pretext, pretence, excuse #1,143
- Icelandic fyrirgefðu excuse me, sorry #549
- Italian scusa apology, excuse #296
- Latvian atvainoties to excuse oneself #1,938
- Macedonian извини to forgive, excuse, pardon #156
- Norwegian unnskyld to excuse #165
- Persian معذرت excuse; apology #387
- Polish przepraszam sorry; I'm sorry, excuse me #90
- Portuguese desculpa excuse, pretext #180
- Romanian pardon pardon!, pardon me!, excuse me!, I beg your… #1,972
- Slovak výhovorka #2,326
- Spanish disculpe excuse me; pardon me #739
- Swedish ursäkta excuse me!, pardon, I'm sorry! #211
- Tamil மன்னி to forgive, excuse, pardon #1,732
- Turkish pardon pardon!, pardon me!, excuse me!, I beg your… #543
- Ukrainian вибачте excuse me #241
- Urdu معذرت apology, sorry; excuse #262
- Vietnamese cớ reason, excuse, pretext #2,005
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.