How to say “old” in 53 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.
- viejo/ˈbjexo/ Spanish
- पुराने/pʊ.ɾɑː.neː/ Hindi
- ישן/jaˈʃan/ Hebrew
- ძველი[d͡zʷe̞li] Georgian
- ծեր/t͡seɾ/ Armenian
- প্রাচীন/pɾat͡ʃin/ Bengali
“old” in Spanish: viejo · French: vieux · German: alter · Portuguese: velho · Hindi: पुराने · Turkish: eski
It is commonest in Tamil, where பழைய is the 128th most used word.
Old in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans ou/œʊ̯/ old, aged #190
- Albanian vjetër/vjɛtəɾ/ #297
- Arabic قدم/qa.da.ma/ time long past, old times #565
- Armenian ծեր/t͡seɾ/ old, aged #366
- Basque zahar/s̻ar/ old, aged #413
- Bengali প্রাচীন/pɾat͡ʃin/ old, ancient #905
- Bosnian stari/ˈstɑrɪ/ #436
- Bulgarian стар[star] #764
- Catalan vell[ˈbeʎ] #456
- Chinese 老兄/lɑʊ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹ ɕi̯ʊŋ⁵⁵/ brother; old chap #263
- Croatian stari/ˈstɑrɪ/ #387
- Czech starý[ˈstariː] #717
- Danish gamle/ˈɡɑmlə/ #284
- Dutch oude/ˈɑu̯.də/ #357
- English paul/pɔl/ An old Italian silver coin; a paolo #927
- Esperanto maljuna/malˈjuna/ #736
- Estonian vana/ˈvɑnɑ/ #304
- Finnish vanha/ˈʋɑnhɑ/ #380
- French vieux/vjø/ #373
- Galician vello/ˈbɛɟo/ #357
- Georgian ძველი[d͡zʷe̞li] #479
- German alter/ˈʔaltɐ/ #502
- Greek παλιά/paˈʎa/ in the old / olden days, back then #658
- Hebrew ישן/jaˈʃan/ old, having existed for a long time #649
- Hindi पुराने/pʊ.ɾɑː.neː/ #421
- Hungarian régi[ˈreːɡi] #378
- Icelandic gamall[ˈkaːmatl̥] #498
- Indonesian tua/ˈtua/ #293
- Italian quei/ˈkwe.i/ Old Italian form of quegli #399
- Korean 예전[ˈje̞(ː)d͡ʑʌ̹n] the old days, the old times, the past, long… #702
- Latvian vecais/ˈʋæt͡sais/ #582
- Lithuanian senas[ˈsʲæːnɐs] #439
- Macedonian стар[star] #500
- Malay buruk/ˈburuk/ old, rotten #303
- Malayalam പഴയ/pɐɻɐjɐ/ #133
- Norwegian gamle/ˈɡɑmlə/ #322
- Persian قدیمی[qæ.d̪iː.míː] old, ancient, not new, having existed for a… #1,124
- Polish prostu/ˈprɔs.tu/ old dative of prosty #134
- Portuguese velho/ˈvɛ.ʎu/ old; ancient #503
- Romanian vechi/vekʲ/ #701
- Russian вся[fsʲa] old nominative/accusative neuter plural of… #635
- Serbian stari/ˈstɑrɪ/ #483
- Slovak starý/stariː/ #367
- Slovenian star/stár/ old, aged #317
- Spanish viejo/ˈbjexo/ #381
- Swedish gamla/ˈɡamla/ #443
- Tagalog luma/ˈlumaʔ/ #733
- Tamil பழைய/pɐɻɐɪ̯jɐ/ old, ancient #128
- Telugu పాత/paːt̪a/ of or pertaining to old age #104
- Turkish eski[esˈki] #222
- Ukrainian старий[stɐˈrɪi̯] old, ancient #515
- Urdu پرانا/pʊ.ɾɑː.nɑː/ #1,026
- Vietnamese già[zaː˨˩] old; compare cũ #600
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), Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0) and Vietnamese (vais1000 (vi_VN), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.