How to say “leave” in 50 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 Vietnamese, where ra is the 37th most used word.
- Afrikaans los to leave, abandon #144
- Albanian lë to leave, to leave behind #312
- Arabic ترك to leave, to relinquish #402
- Armenian ել to go out; to leave; to exit #552
- Basque utzi to leave #42
- Bengali ছুটি #742
- Bosnian otišao to leave, part, depart #374
- Bulgarian оставя to leave, abandon #531
- Catalan deixa to leave away #203
- Chinese 留下 to leave behind; to leave #165
- Croatian otići to leave, part, depart #284
- Czech nech to leave #304
- Danish forlade to leave #763
- Dutch laat to leave, to cause to remain in the same… #84
- English close So as to leave or create little distance or… #424
- Esperanto lasu to leave #156
- Estonian lahkuma to leave #768
- Finnish lähteä to leave, go, go away, set off, take off,… #268
- French partir to go away, leave, depart #249
- Galician parte to go away, to leave, to depart #192
- Georgian გამოდის to come out, to leave #851
- German hinterlassen to leave, to leave behind #1,700
- Greek φύγω to leave, depart, go #374
- Hebrew עזב to leave, leave behind, depart #833
- Hindi छुट्टी leave, absence from work #1,025
- Icelandic fer to go, to leave #84
- Indonesian parkir to park, halt and leave a vehicle in a spot #1,663
- Italian parte to depart; to leave; to set forth #145
- Latvian aiziet to leave, to go away, to escape #100
- Lithuanian palikti to leave #376
- Macedonian остави to leave, abandon, relinquish #232
- Malay cuti leave, furlough, holiday, vacation, break #1,228
- Malayalam വിട് to leave something, release hold #169
- Norwegian forlate to leave, depart, abandon #819
- Polish zostaw to leave #589
- Portuguese sair to exit; to leave; to get out #207
- Romanian plecat to leave, depart #282
- Russian уйти to leave, to depart, to go #520
- Serbian otišao to leave, part, depart #354
- Slovak odísť leave, depart #295
- Slovenian pustiti to leave #393
- Spanish salir to go out, to leave, to depart, to head out #264
- Swedish lämna to leave; to not take away with oneself but… #276
- Tagalog lumabas to leave; to exit; to go out #259
- Tamil புறப்படு to depart, leave, set out for a destination #1,209
- Telugu సెలవు leave, permission #574
- Turkish çıktı to leave, exit, quit, get out #409
- Ukrainian залишити to leave #841
- Urdu گیا to go, to leave #38
- Vietnamese ra to go out, to leave #37
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.