How to say “former” in 31 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 była is the 102nd most used word.
- Afrikaans gewese #1,947
- Albanian qytet city, particularly as a former administrative… #386
- Armenian նախկին former, ex- #871
- Bengali সাবেক former, precedent, preceding, previous #1,283
- Bosnian nekad once, in former times #749
- Bulgarian бивш former, previous, past, ex- #1,800
- Chinese 以往 the past; former times #1,861
- Croatian nekad once, in former times #890
- Czech bývalý #2,132
- Estonian endine former, erstwhile #1,100
- Finnish entinen former, previous, erstwhile #1,782
- French ancien old, former, ex- #1,341
- Georgian ყოფილი former, ex- #1,056
- Greek πρώην former, ex, onetime, sometime #791
- Hebrew לשעבר Former, past, previous, erstwhile, sometime #691
- Hungarian korábbi former, previous, earlier, preceding, older,… #2,326
- Icelandic fyrrverandi former, ex- #774
- Indonesian mantan former; ex- #1,059
- Korean 전직 one's former post #2,069
- Lithuanian buvę former, past, ex- #977
- Malay purba ancient, former #1,803
- Persian سابق former, precedent #1,067
- Polish była former, previous #102
- Serbian nekad once, in former times #696
- Slovak bývalý former, past, ex- #1,078
- Slovenian bivši #660
- Spanish ex former, ex- #1,672
- Swedish förra former, last, previous #693
- Tamil முன்னாள் former, ex, ex- #381
- Ukrainian колишній former, previous, erstwhile, ex- #2,067
- Urdu سابق former, prior, precedent, preceding, foregoing #1,067
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.