How to say “rather” in 36 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 Hungarian, where igen is the 18th most used word.
- Afrikaans liewer #254
- Arabic بل but; rather #159
- Basque samar somewhat, rather #669
- Bengali বরং rather, instead #487
- Bosnian prilično rather, pretty, quite, fairly #526
- Chinese 而是 but; rather #301
- Croatian prilično rather, pretty, quite, fairly #453
- Czech spíše #2,252
- Danish hellere #367
- Dutch best quite, rather #360
- English prefer To be in the habit of choosing something… #1,613
- Estonian parem rather than #193
- Finnish aivan very, rather, quite #126
- French plutôt rather, instead #410
- Georgian არამედ On the contrary, but rather, but #506
- German ganz quite, rather #145
- Greek μάλλον #250
- Hindi बल्कि rather, but #1,210
- Hungarian igen quite, very, rather, highly #18
- Icelandic frekar rather, preferably, specifies a choice or… #296
- Indonesian malah rather, instead #1,062
- Italian piuttosto rather, somewhat, fairly #690
- Korean 아니라 is not, but rather #139
- Latvian pavisam quite, rather, very #546
- Macedonian повеќе rather, preferably #85
- Malay agak rather; quite; somewhat; fairly #336
- Malayalam മറിച്ച് but, rather, on the contrary #681
- Norwegian heller #266
- Russian лучше rather, would better #124
- Serbian prilično rather, pretty, quite, fairly #498
- Spanish bastante quite, rather, pretty, fairly #384
- Swedish ganska pretty, quite, rather #490
- Tagalog medyo rather; somewhat; a little bit; kind of #214
- Ukrainian швидше rather, sooner #285
- Urdu بلکہ rather, but #480
- Vietnamese lẻ alone rather than with other people #1,882
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.