How to say “otherwise” 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 Telugu, where లేదా is the 43rd most used word.
- Afrikaans geleerde academic or otherwise learned expert;… #1,772
- Bengali অন্যথায় otherwise, else, or else #1,927
- Bosnian inače #776
- Chinese 不然 otherwise; or #246
- Croatian inače #659
- Danish ellers #252
- Dutch anders #165
- English else Otherwise, if not #238
- Esperanto alie otherwise, in another way, differently #794
- Estonian teisiti #981
- Finnish muuten else, or else, otherwise #385
- Georgian თორემ or else, otherwise #401
- German sonst #290
- Greek αλλιώς otherwise; else; differently #420
- Hebrew פן lest, ]] that … not, for otherwise; used in… #1,905
- Hindi वरना #1,175
- Hungarian különben #660
- Icelandic annars or else, otherwise #242
- Indonesian p used to ping or otherwise start a text… #2,027
- Italian altrimenti otherwise, or else #1,044
- Lithuanian antraip otherwise, in a different way, contrarily #963
- Macedonian инаку otherwise, differently #515
- Norwegian ellers #325
- Persian وگرنه otherwise; or else; if not #527
- Polish inaczej differently, otherwise #493
- Portuguese senão else, otherwise; apart from, besides #1,246
- Romanian altfel #604
- Serbian inače #707
- Swedish annars otherwise, or else #351
- Telugu లేదా or, otherwise #43
- Urdu ورنہ #758
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.