How to say “rather” in 36 different 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.
- лучше[ˈɫut͡ʂʂɨ] Russian
- बल्कि/bəl.kiː/ Hindi
- μάλλον/ˈmalon/ Greek
- বরং/bɔɾoŋ/ Bengali
- بلکہ/bəl.kiː/ Urdu
“rather” in French: plutôt · Italian: piuttosto · Russian: лучше · Hindi: बल्कि · Greek: μάλλον
It is commonest in Macedonian, where повеќе is the 85th most used word.
Rather in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans liewer/ˈlivər/ #254
- Arabic بل/bal/ but; rather #159
- Basque samar/s̺amar/ somewhat, rather #669
- Bengali বরং/bɔɾoŋ/ rather, instead #487
- Bosnian prilično/prǐːlit͡ʃno/ rather, pretty, quite, fairly #526
- Chinese 而是/ˀɤɻ³⁵ ʂɻ̩⁵¹/ but; rather #301
- Croatian prilično/prǐːlit͡ʃno/ rather, pretty, quite, fairly #453
- Czech spíše[ˈspiːʃɛ] #2,252
- Danish hellere/ˈhɛlɐɐ/ #367
- Dutch best/bɛst/ quite, rather #360
- English prefer[pɹɪˈfɝ] To be in the habit of choosing something… #1,613
- Estonian parem/ˈpɑrem/ rather than #193
- Finnish aivan/ˈɑi̯ʋɑn/ very, rather, quite #126
- French plutôt/ply.to/ rather, instead #410
- Georgian არამედ[äɾäme̞tʰ] On the contrary, but rather, but #506
- German ganz/ɡan(t)s/ quite, rather #145
- Greek μάλλον/ˈmalon/ #250
- Hindi बल्कि/bəl.kiː/ rather, but #1,210
- Hungarian igen[ˈiɡɛn] quite, very, rather, highly #18
- Icelandic frekar/ˈfrɛːkar/ rather, preferably, specifies a choice or… #296
- Indonesian malah/ˈmalah/ rather, instead #1,062
- Italian piuttosto/pjutˈtɔs.to/ rather, somewhat, fairly #690
- Korean 아니라[a̠niɾa̠] is not, but rather #139
- Latvian pavisam/paˈʋisam/ quite, rather, very #546
- Macedonian повеќе[ˈpɔvɛcɛ] rather, preferably #85
- Malay agak/ˈaɡak/ rather; quite; somewhat; fairly #336
- Malayalam മറിച്ച്/märit͡ʃːɨ̆/ but, rather, on the contrary #681
- Norwegian heller/ˈhɛlər/ #266
- Russian лучше[ˈɫut͡ʂʂɨ] rather, would better #124
- Serbian prilično/prǐːlit͡ʃno/ rather, pretty, quite, fairly #498
- Spanish bastante/basˈtante/ quite, rather, pretty, fairly #384
- Swedish ganska/ˈɡanska/ pretty, quite, rather #490
- Tagalog medyo/ˈmedjo/ rather; somewhat; a little bit; kind of #214
- Ukrainian швидше[ˈʃʋɪd͡ʒʃe] rather, sooner #285
- Urdu بلکہ/bəl.kiː/ rather, but #480
- Vietnamese lẻ[lɛ˧˩] alone rather than with other people #1,882
The speaker reads the word in the voice the LangX app uses for that language — synthesised, not a recording of a native speaker, so treat it as a guide. A row without a button has no reading we are free to use, or none we trust, yet. Voices for Bengali (google (bn_BD), CC BY-SA 4.0), Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 4.0) and Vietnamese (vais1000 (vi_VN), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.