How to say “goodbye” in 38 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 Basque, where agur is the 140th most used word.
- Afrikaans totsiens Goodbye, farewell #209
- Albanian përshëndetje hello, greetings, goodbye #220
- Arabic وداعا farewell, adieu, goodbye #671
- Armenian ցտեսություն #671
- Basque agur #140
- Bengali বিদায় #1,148
- Bosnian zbogom goodbye, farewell #712
- Bulgarian довиждане #597
- Chinese 再見 goodbye; see you later #755
- Croatian zbogom goodbye, farewell #733
- Danish farvel goodbye, farewell #308
- Dutch doei bye, goodbye #2,223
- English good-bye Alternative form of goodbye #1,797
- Esperanto adiaŭ goodbye, farewell #500
- Estonian nägemist #596
- Finnish näkemiin see you later, see you, goodbye #1,180
- Galician adeus a goodbye #323
- Georgian ნახვამდის #607
- Greek αντίο goodbye, bye, adieu, farewell #444
- Hebrew להתראות Goodbye, bye, see you later #399
- Hindi अलविदा bye, goodbye #443
- Hungarian viszlát goodbye, so long, see you later, next time,… #464
- Icelandic bless goodbye, bye #243
- Italian addio goodbye, farewell #907
- Korean 작별 farewell; goodbye #1,490
- Latvian atā goodbye, bye-bye #393
- Lithuanian ate goodbye, ta-ta #1,121
- Macedonian збогум goodbye, farewell soon #687
- Norwegian farvel goodbye, or more formally, farewell #772
- Persian خداحافظ goodbye, God be with you #410
- Polish żegnaj to bid farewell, to bid goodbye #1,879
- Portuguese adeus #363
- Serbian zbogom goodbye, farewell #705
- Slovak zbohom #540
- Slovenian adijo #234
- Spanish adiós goodbye, farewell #296
- Swedish adjö #1,048
- Turkish veda farewell, goodbye #1,459
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.