How to say “minute” 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 Icelandic, where bíddu is the 113th most used word.
- Afrikaans minute #369
- Albanian minuta #232
- Arabic دقيقة #197
- Armenian րոպե #687
- Basque minutu #209
- Bengali মিনিট #206
- Bosnian minuta #287
- Bulgarian минута #778
- Catalan minuts #408
- Chinese 分鐘 #1,797
- Croatian minuta #337
- Czech minut #406
- Danish minutter #319
- Dutch minuten #377
- Esperanto minutoj #439
- Estonian minuti #585
- Finnish minuuttia #508
- French minutes #380
- Galician minuto minute; 60 seconds #719
- Georgian წუთი #1,046
- German minuten #389
- Greek λεπτό #321
- Hebrew דקה #640
- Hindi मिनट #256
- Hungarian perc #388
- Icelandic bíddu wait a minute #113
- Italian minuti tiny, minute, emaciated, thin #404
- Korean 잠깐만 just a minute, just a moment #190
- Latvian minūtes #434
- Lithuanian minutes #507
- Macedonian минути #204
- Malayalam മിനിറ്റ് minute; 60 seconds #196
- Norwegian minutter a minute #321
- Persian دقیقه #582
- Polish minut #362
- Portuguese minutos #334
- Romanian minute #325
- Serbian minuta #307
- Slovak minúta #2,024
- Slovenian minuta #1,426
- Spanish minutos #341
- Swedish minuter #332
- Tagalog muna for a while; for a moment; for the time… #119
- Tamil அணு atom, minute particle of matter #279
- Turkish dakika #189
- Urdu منٹ #148
- Vietnamese phút #413
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.