How to say “old” in 53 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 Telugu, where పాత is the 104th most used word.
- Afrikaans ou old, aged #190
- Albanian vjetër #297
- Arabic قدم time long past, old times #565
- Armenian ծեր old, aged #366
- Basque zahar old, aged #413
- Bengali প্রাচীন old, ancient #905
- Bosnian stari #436
- Bulgarian стар #764
- Catalan vell #456
- Chinese 老兄 brother; old chap #263
- Croatian stari #387
- Czech starý #717
- Danish gamle #284
- Dutch oude #357
- English paul An old Italian silver coin; a paolo #927
- Esperanto maljuna #736
- Estonian vana #304
- Finnish vanha #380
- French vieux #373
- Galician vello #357
- Georgian ძველი #479
- German alter #502
- Greek παλιά in the old / olden days, back then #658
- Hebrew ישן old, having existed for a long time #649
- Hindi पुराने #421
- Hungarian régi #378
- Icelandic gamall #498
- Indonesian tua #293
- Italian quei Old Italian form of quegli #399
- Korean 예전 the old days, the old times, the past, long… #702
- Latvian vecais #582
- Lithuanian senas #439
- Macedonian стар #500
- Malay buruk old, rotten #303
- Malayalam പഴയ #133
- Norwegian gamle #322
- Persian قدیمی old, ancient, not new, having existed for a… #1,124
- Polish prostu old dative of prosty #134
- Portuguese velho old; ancient #503
- Romanian vechi #701
- Russian вся old nominative/accusative neuter plural of… #635
- Serbian stari #483
- Slovak starý #367
- Slovenian star old, aged #317
- Spanish viejo #381
- Swedish gamla #443
- Tagalog luma #733
- Tamil பழைய old, ancient #128
- Telugu పాత of or pertaining to old age #104
- Turkish eski #222
- Ukrainian старий old, ancient #515
- Urdu پرانا #1,026
- Vietnamese già old; compare cũ #600
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.