How to say “left” in 47 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 Malayalam, where ബാക്കി is the 207th most used word.
- Afrikaans oorbly to remain, to be left #1,124
- Albanian majtë left hand #850
- Arabic شمال left hand #1,332
- Armenian ձախ to the left #1,419
- Bengali বাম #711
- Bosnian lijevo #1,492
- Bulgarian ляво #1,858
- Catalan queda to remain, to be left #333
- Chinese 剩下 to be left over; to remain #308
- Croatian lijevo #1,143
- Czech doleva #2,179
- Danish venstre #681
- Dutch links on the left #1,180
- English left On the left side #216
- Esperanto maldekstre on the left #1,538
- Estonian vasak #1,451
- Finnish jäljellä left, remaining #965
- French gauche #839
- Galician esquerda left, left-hand #565
- German links on the left #1,140
- Greek αριστερά #1,031
- Hebrew שמאל #1,252
- Hungarian bal #1,425
- Icelandic vinstri #430
- Indonesian kiri #728
- Italian manca left hand #962
- Korean 나머지 the rest, remainder, what is left over #589
- Latvian kreisi left, in, to the left; adverbial form of… #666
- Lithuanian likti stay, remain, be left #464
- Macedonian лево to the left #658
- Malay kiri #534
- Malayalam ബാക്കി remaining, what's left #207
- Norwegian venstre #715
- Persian چپ #634
- Portuguese esquerda the left side, part, half or direction #1,012
- Romanian rămâne to remain, be left, stay behind #498
- Serbian levo #1,276
- Slovak ľavá #1,763
- Spanish izquierda #1,031
- Swedish kvar left, remaining #233
- Tagalog hayaan to be left alone #235
- Tamil இடது #393
- Telugu డా left, left-hand, sinister #1,494
- Turkish kal to remain, be left; to be left over #373
- Ukrainian залишитися to remain, to stay; to be left #1,103
- Urdu باقی remaining, left over #304
- Vietnamese sót to be left over, to remain, remaindered #928
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.