How to say “fast” in 50 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.
- быстро[ˈbɨstrə] Russian
- ჩქარა[t͡ʃʰkʰäɾä] Georgian
- արագ/ɑˈɾɑɡ/ Armenian
- দ্রুত/d̪ɾut̪o/ Bengali
- تیز/t̪eːz/ Urdu
“fast” in French: rapide · Italian: veloce · Portuguese: rápida · Russian: быстро · Turkish: hızlı
It is commonest in Basque, where azkar is the 145th most used word.
Fast in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans vinnig/ˈfənəχ/ quick, fast #409
- Albanian shpejt/ʃpɛjt/ quickly, fast #164
- Arabic أسرع/ʔasraʕa/ to be fast #392
- Armenian արագ/ɑˈɾɑɡ/ fast, quickly, rapidly #237
- Basque azkar/as̻kar/ fast, quickly #145
- Bengali দ্রুত/d̪ɾut̪o/ fast, quick, apace #239
- Bosnian brz/br̩̂ːz/ #2,119
- Bulgarian бързо[ˈbɤrzo] quickly, fast #255
- Catalan ràpida/ˈrapiðə/ rapid; quick; fast; speedy #2,410
- Croatian brz/br̩̂ːz/ #2,136
- Czech rychlý[ˈrɪxliː] #2,360
- Danish hurtig/horti/ quick, rapid, fast #1,310
- Dutch snel/snɛl/ fast, quick, rapid #249
- English quickly/ˈkwɪk.li/ Rapidly; with speed; fast; with expedition #873
- Esperanto rapida/raˈpida/ quick, fast, rapid #1,749
- Estonian kiiresti/ˈkiːresti/ fast, quickly #370
- Finnish kovaa/ˈkoʋɑː/ fast, hard, loud #1,534
- French rapide/ʁa.pid/ fast; rapidly; quickly #1,230
- Galician rápida/ˈrapida/ #2,056
- Georgian ჩქარა[t͡ʃʰkʰäɾä] fast, quickly, rapidly #997
- German schneller/ˈʃnɛlɐ/ quick, fast #872
- Greek γρήγορα/ˈɣɾiɣoɾa/ quickly, fast #230
- Hebrew מהר/maˈ(h)eʁ/ quickly, rapidly, fast #233
- Hindi दौड़/d̪ɔːɽ/ running; fast movement #1,527
- Hungarian gyorsan[ˈɟorʃɒn] quickly, swiftly, fast, rapidly #281
- Icelandic fljótur[ˈfljouːtʏr] swift, quick, fast #2,112
- Indonesian cepat/t͡ʃəˈpat/ swift; fast: moving with great speed, or… #128
- Italian veloce/veˈlo.t͡ʃe/ fast, quick, speedy, rapid #845
- Korean 빨리빨리[p͈a̠ʎʎip͈a̠ʎʎi] quickly; fast #2,482
- Latvian ātri/ˈaːtri/ fast, quick, quickly; adverbial form of ātrs #248
- Lithuanian greit[²ˈɡrʲɛɪˑt] quickly, fast #355
- Macedonian брзо[ˈbr̩zɔ] fast, quickly, rapidly #225
- Malay cepat/t͡ʃəˈpat/ quick, fast, rapid, apace, prompt #115
- Malayalam പെട്ടെന്ന്/peʈʈen̪n̪ɨ/ quickly, fast #107
- Norwegian fort/fuʈ/ fast, quick, quickly #338
- Persian محکم[mæɦ.kʰʲǽm] tight, firm, fast #721
- Polish szybko/ˈʂɘp.kɔ/ quickly, rapidly, fast, swiftly #251
- Portuguese rápida/ˈʁa.pi.dɐ/ #2,149
- Romanian repede/ˈre.pe.de/ fast, quickly, rapidly #247
- Russian быстро[ˈbɨstrə] fast, quickly, rapidly #376
- Serbian brz/br̩̂ːz/ #1,940
- Slovak rýchly/riːxli/ fast, quick #1,230
- Slovenian hitro/xìːtrɔ/ fast, quickly #158
- Spanish rápido/ˈrapido/ rapidly, quickly, fast #310
- Swedish fort/ˈfʊʈ/ quickly/quick, fast #397
- Tagalog mabilis/mabiˈlis/ fast; swift; rapid; speedy #340
- Turkish hızlı/hɯzˈɫɯ/ fast, rapid, quick #394
- Ukrainian швидко[ˈʃʋɪdkɔ] fast, quickly #380
- Urdu تیز/t̪eːz/ fast, quick #545
- Vietnamese nhanh[ɲajŋ̟˧˧] fast; quickly #220
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.