How to say “late” 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.
- tarde/ˈtaɾde/ Spanish
- поздно[ˈpoz(d)nə] Russian
- متأخر/mutaʔaxxir/ Arabic
- 고[ko̞] Korean
- מאוחר/me(ʔ)uˈχaʁ/ Hebrew
- გვიანი[ɡ̊ʷiäni] Georgian
“late” in Spanish: tarde · French: tard · German: spät · Italian: tardi · Portuguese: tarde · Korean: 고 · Russian: поздно · Arabic: متأخر
It is commonest in Swedish, where sen is the 100th most used word.
Late in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans verpas/fərˈpas/ to miss, to be too late for #1,730
- Albanian vonë/vɔnə/ #194
- Arabic متأخر/mutaʔaxxir/ #606
- Armenian ուշ/uʃ/ #218
- Bosnian kasno/kâsno/ #731
- Bulgarian късно[ˈkɤsno] #443
- Catalan tard[ˈtart] #310
- Chinese 最近/t͡su̯eɪ̯⁵¹⁻⁵³ t͡ɕin⁵¹/ recently; lately; of late #153
- Croatian kasno/kâsno/ #791
- Czech pozdě[ˈpozɟɛ] #479
- Danish sent/ˈseːˀnd/ #385
- English till/tɪl/ Until; to, up to; as late as #624
- Esperanto malfrue/malˈfrue/ #474
- Estonian hilja/ˈhiljɑ/ #586
- Finnish myöhemmin/ˈmyø̯hemːin/ #315
- French tard/taʁ/ #273
- Galician tarde/ˈtaɾde/ late, later #204
- Georgian გვიანი[ɡ̊ʷiäni] #552
- German spät/ʃpɛːt/ #432
- Hebrew מאוחר/me(ʔ)uˈχaʁ/ late, belated #295
- Hungarian később[ˈkeːʃøːbː] late, too late #304
- Icelandic seinn[ˈseitn̥] late, tardy #694
- Indonesian telat[təˈlat] late, not arriving until after an expected… #1,921
- Italian tardi/ˈtar.di/ #441
- Korean 고[ko̞] the late, deceased #715
- Latvian vēlos/ˈʋæːluos/ #464
- Lithuanian vėliau/veːˈlʲɐʊ/ #249
- Macedonian доцна[ˈdɔt͡sna] #721
- Malay terlambat/tərˈlambat/ too late; already late; delayed #629
- Malayalam ലേറ്റ്/leːtɨ̆/ #1,988
- Norwegian senere/ˈseːnərə/ #366
- Persian دیر[d̪iːɹ] #1,025
- Polish późno/ˈpuʑ.nɔ/ #701
- Portuguese tarde/ˈtaʁ.d͡ʒi/ #281
- Romanian târziu/tɨrˈziw/ #270
- Russian поздно[ˈpoz(d)nə] #611
- Serbian kasno/kâsno/ #698
- Slovenian pozno/pɔ̀ːznɔ/ #467
- Spanish tarde/ˈtaɾde/ #242
- Swedish sen/seːn/ #100
- Tamil லேட்/leːʈ/ #1,068
- Turkish geç/ɟetʃ/ #267
- Ukrainian пізно[ˈpʲiznɔ] #758
- Vietnamese muộn[muən˧˨ʔ] late; tardy #926
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 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.