How to say “never” in 39 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 aldrei is the 63rd most used word.
- Afrikaans nooit #96
- Albanian kurrë #112
- Arabic قط ever, never #405
- Armenian երբեք #130
- Bosnian nikad #146
- Bulgarian никога #112
- Catalan mai #85
- Chinese 永不 will never; never #1,212
- Croatian nikad #143
- Czech nikdy #90
- Danish aldrig #101
- Dutch nooit #102
- Esperanto neniam #90
- Finnish koskaan ever; never #120
- French jamais #97
- Galician nunca #81
- Georgian არასოდეს never, nevermore #176
- German nie never, never at all #124
- Greek απίστευτο well, I never! #1,008
- Hungarian soha #151
- Icelandic aldrei never, at no time #63
- Italian mai #66
- Korean 절대 absolutely, totally, never #142
- Latvian nekad #96
- Lithuanian niekada #115
- Macedonian никогаш #94
- Norwegian aldri #99
- Persian هیچ #197
- Polish nigdy #85
- Portuguese nunca #93
- Romanian niciodată #154
- Russian никогда never, nevermore #107
- Serbian nikad #144
- Slovenian nikoli never, at no time #77
- Spanish nunca #98
- Swedish aldrig #92
- Tagalog talunan defeated; beaten; never able to win #1,332
- Turkish asla #151
- Ukrainian ніколи #115
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.