How to say “quick” in 33 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 Malay, where cepat is the 115th most used word.
- Afrikaans gou quick, quickly #157
- Albanian shpejtë quick, fast #339
- Arabic وشك to be quick, to hurry #305
- Basque azkarrago fast, quick #606
- Bengali দ্রুত fast, quick, apace #239
- Bulgarian по-бързо fast, swift, quick, rapid, sweeping, fleet #650
- Catalan ràpida rapid; quick; fast; speedy #2,410
- Chinese 迅速 rapid; quick #1,099
- Danish hurtig quick, rapid, fast #1,310
- Dutch snel fast, quick, rapid #249
- English quick Quickly, in a quick manner #702
- Esperanto rapida quick, fast, rapid #1,749
- Finnish nopea fast, quick, rapid, swift #2,179
- German schneller quick, fast #872
- Greek γρήγορο quick, fast, swift, brisk #2,424
- Hebrew מהיר fast, quick, swift #844
- Hindi चालाक quick, speedy #1,424
- Hungarian gyors rapid, quick, fast #1,098
- Icelandic fljótur swift, quick, fast #2,112
- Italian veloce fast, quick, speedy, rapid #845
- Latvian ātri fast, quick, quickly; adverbial form of ātrs #248
- Lithuanian greitas #1,267
- Macedonian брза fast, quick, rapid #1,143
- Malay cepat quick, fast, rapid, apace, prompt #115
- Norwegian fort fast, quick, quickly #338
- Persian تند fast; quick #1,239
- Slovak rýchly fast, quick #1,230
- Slovenian hiter fast, quick #786
- Swedish fort quickly/quick, fast #397
- Tagalog madali quick; easy #584
- Turkish hızlı fast, rapid, quick #394
- Urdu تیز fast, quick #545
- Vietnamese tinh quick to notice; sharp, keen, etc #488
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.