How to say “now” in 52 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.
- ya/ˈʝa/ Spanish
- сейчас[sʲɪjˈt͡ɕas] Russian
- الآن/al.ʔaː.na/ Arabic
- 現在/ɕi̯ɛn⁵¹⁻⁵³ t͡saɪ̯⁵¹/ Chinese
- 이제[id͡ʑe̞] Korean
- अब/əb/ Hindi
“now” in Spanish: ya · French: maintenant · German: jetzt · Italian: ora · Portuguese: agora · Chinese: 現在 · Korean: 이제 · Russian: сейчас
It is commonest in Finnish, where nyt is the 19th most used word.
Now in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans nou/nœu/ #35
- Albanian tani[taˈni] now; at present #44
- Arabic الآن/al.ʔaː.na/ #29
- Armenian հիմա/hiˈmɑ/ now, at present, at this moment in time #41
- Basque orain/oɾai̯n/ #25
- Bengali এখন/ækʰɔn/ now; currently, at present #30
- Bosnian sad/sâd/ #92
- Bulgarian сега[sɛˈɡa] #51
- Catalan ara[ˈa.ɾə] #46
- Chinese 現在/ɕi̯ɛn⁵¹⁻⁵³ t͡saɪ̯⁵¹/ now; the present time; the present moment;… #148
- Croatian sad/sâd/ #98
- Czech teď[ˈtɛc] #45
- Danish nu/nu/ #34
- Dutch nu/ny/ now, at the present moment #55
- English ago/əˈɡoʊ/ Before now, before the present time #335
- Esperanto nun/nun/ #46
- Estonian nüüd/nyːd̥/ #38
- Finnish nyt/ˈnyt/ #19
- French maintenant/mɛ̃t.nɑ̃/ now, currently #106
- Galician agora/aˈɡoɾa/ #46
- Georgian ახლა[äχɫä] #43
- German jetzt/jɛtst/ #58
- Greek τώρα/ˈtoɾa/ #46
- Hebrew עכשיו/(ʔ)aχˈʃav/ #39
- Hindi अब/əb/ #49
- Hungarian most[ˈmoʃt] #31
- Icelandic nú[ˈnuː] #38
- Indonesian sekarang/səˈkaraŋ/ now, today #39
- Italian ora/ˈo.ra/ #55
- Korean 이제[id͡ʑe̞] now, and now #35
- Latvian tagad[taɡat] #58
- Lithuanian dabar[dɐ²ˈbɐrˑ] #37
- Macedonian сега[ˈsɛɡa] #38
- Malay sekarang/səˈka.raŋ/ now, today #38
- Malayalam ഇനി/ini/ from now on #37
- Norwegian nå/noː/ #43
- Persian حالا[hɒː.lɒː] now, presently #39
- Polish teraz/ˈtɛ.ras/ #44
- Portuguese agora/aˈɡɔ.ɾɐ/ now; right now #57
- Romanian acum/aˈkum/ now; right now; at present #41
- Russian сейчас[sʲɪjˈt͡ɕas] #70
- Serbian sad/sâd/ #89
- Slovak teraz/teras/ #37
- Slovenian zdaj/zdáj/ now, at this moment #49
- Spanish ya/ˈʝa/ now, right now, anymore, no longer #40
- Swedish nu/nʉː/ #37
- Tagalog na/na/ already; now; anymore #3
- Tamil இனி/ɪniː/ #90
- Telugu ఇప్పుడు/ipːuɖu/ now, at this time #26
- Turkish şimdi/ˈʃim.di/ #45
- Ukrainian от[ɔt] there, here, now. Used demonstratively to… #71
- Urdu اب/əb/ now, presently #40
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 Bengali (google (bn_BD), CC BY-SA 4.0), Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), CC BY-SA 4.0), Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 4.0) and Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.