How to say “opposite” in 31 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 Dutch, where wel is the 47th most used word.
- Afrikaans wel the opposite of not #97
- Albanian kundër #373
- Arabic حيال opposite, forenenst #445
- Armenian դիմաց opposite, facing, against #362
- Basque aurka against, opposite #317
- Bulgarian противен opposite, contrary #2,318
- Catalan dret right; opposite of left #618
- Danish overfor #1,373
- Dutch wel the opposite of not #47
- Estonian tagasi In the opposite direction #54
- French contraire #1,367
- German gegenüber #1,217
- Greek απέναντι opposite, on the other side, across, over the… #1,469
- Hebrew מול Opposite, against, facing #587
- Hindi सामने opposite; in front, facing #426
- Hungarian szemben across, opposite #1,104
- Indonesian seberang the opposite, the other side #2,153
- Italian contrario contrary, opposite, alien #1,440
- Korean 건너 the opposite side #1,509
- Lithuanian priešais opposite, in front of, across from #848
- Malayalam ഇടത് left; opposite of right #1,370
- Norwegian overfor opposite, vis-à-vis #1,474
- Persian مقابل opposite, vis-à-vis of #705
- Portuguese contrário contrary, opposite #1,061
- Romanian ci but; so that; on the contrary, opposite #647
- Slovak naproti #2,248
- Spanish contrario contrary, opposite #1,438
- Tagalog lagos piercing and reaching to the opposite side in… #1,592
- Tamil தென் term expressing that which is opposite #510
- Turkish karşı #216
- Urdu مخالف contrary, opposite #1,215
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.