How to say “now” in 52 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 Tagalog, where na is the 3rd most used word.
- Afrikaans nou #35
- Albanian tani now; at present #44
- Arabic الآن #29
- Armenian հիմա now, at present, at this moment in time #41
- Basque orain #25
- Bengali এখন now; currently, at present #30
- Bosnian sad #92
- Bulgarian сега #51
- Catalan ara #46
- Chinese 現在 now; the present time; the present moment;… #148
- Croatian sad #98
- Czech teď #45
- Danish nu #34
- Dutch nu now, at the present moment #55
- English ago Before now, before the present time #335
- Esperanto nun #46
- Estonian nüüd #38
- Finnish nyt #19
- French maintenant now, currently #106
- Galician agora #46
- Georgian ახლა #43
- German jetzt #58
- Greek τώρα #46
- Hebrew עכשיו #39
- Hindi अब #49
- Hungarian most #31
- Icelandic nú #38
- Indonesian sekarang now, today #39
- Italian ora #55
- Korean 이제 now, and now #35
- Latvian tagad #58
- Lithuanian dabar #37
- Macedonian сега #38
- Malay sekarang now, today #38
- Malayalam ഇനി from now on #37
- Norwegian nå #43
- Persian حالا now, presently #39
- Polish teraz #44
- Portuguese agora now; right now #57
- Romanian acum now; right now; at present #41
- Russian сейчас #70
- Serbian sad #89
- Slovak teraz #37
- Slovenian zdaj now, at this moment #49
- Spanish ya now, right now, anymore, no longer #40
- Swedish nu #37
- Tagalog na already; now; anymore #3
- Tamil இனி #90
- Telugu ఇప్పుడు now, at this time #26
- Turkish şimdi #45
- Ukrainian от there, here, now. Used demonstratively to… #71
- Urdu اب now, presently #40
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.