How to say “return” in 47 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 Chinese, where 回家 is the 80th most used word.
- Albanian urdhër return, favour, answer #981
- Arabic مقابل in return for, in exchange for, as a… #438
- Armenian վերադառնալ to return, to come back #581
- Basque itzuli to return, to come back #125
- Bengali ফিরে to return #98
- Bosnian vratiti to return, come back #324
- Bulgarian върна to return #251
- Catalan tornar to return, to go/come back #211
- Chinese 回家 to return home; to go home; to come home #80
- Croatian vratiti to return, come back #275
- Czech vrátit to return #466
- Danish gengæld return, reciprocation #2,105
- Dutch terugkomen to come back, to return #1,597
- English hired To obtain the services of in return for fixed… #1,988
- Esperanto revenos to come back, return #284
- Finnish palata to return, come back, go back, get back #718
- French retour #499
- Galician volta to return; to come back; to go back #296
- Georgian დაბრუნება to return, to give back #457
- German zurückkommen to return #2,078
- Greek γυρίσω to turn, return, switch #718
- Hebrew שב to return #679
- Hindi लौट to return #1,173
- Hungarian cserébe in return, in exchange #1,636
- Icelandic skila to give back, to return #720
- Indonesian pulang to return, to go home, to go back #224
- Italian tornare to return, to come back #359
- Latvian atgriezties to return, to come back #626
- Lithuanian grįžti to return #297
- Macedonian врати to return, restore, give back #165
- Malay pulang to return, to go back, to go home #257
- Persian برگرد to return, to come back #448
- Polish powrotem #610
- Portuguese volta to return; to come back #212
- Romanian întors to return, come back #467
- Russian вернуться to return, to come back #458
- Serbian vratiti to return, come back #390
- Slovak vrátiť to return #274
- Spanish volver to return, to revert, to get back #300
- Swedish tillbaka back, in return #105
- Tagalog bumalik to return; to come back #230
- Tamil திரும்பு to turn, turn back, return #890
- Telugu మరలు to turn, return, go back #1,543
- Turkish dönüş #1,677
- Ukrainian результат effect, result, return, outcome #1,967
- Urdu واپسی return, coming-back #803
- Vietnamese trả to return; to give back #242
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.