How to say “slowly” in 46 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.
- despacio/desˈpaθjo/ Spanish
- медленно[ˈmʲedlʲɪn(ː)ə] Russian
- 慢慢/män⁵¹⁻⁵³ män⁵¹/ Chinese
- 천천히[ˈt͡ɕʰɘ(ː)ɲt͡ɕʰʌ̹nʝi] Korean
- धीरे/d̪ʱiː.ɾeː/ Hindi
- αργά/arˈɣa/ Greek
“slowly” in Spanish: despacio · German: langsam · Italian: piano · Portuguese: devagar · Chinese: 慢慢 · Korean: 천천히 · Russian: медленно · Hindi: धीरे
It is commonest in Icelandic, where hægt is the 219th most used word.
Slowly in other languages, A to Z
- Albanian ngadalë/nɡadalə/ slow, slowly #557
- Arabic مهلا/mah.lan/ act slowly, gently, leisurely! #260
- Armenian դանդաղ/dɑnˈdɑʁ/ #875
- Bengali আস্তে/ast̪e/ #341
- Bosnian polako/polǎːko/ #495
- Bulgarian бавно[ˈbavno] #1,059
- Chinese 慢慢/män⁵¹⁻⁵³ män⁵¹/ slowly; leisurely #380
- Croatian polako/polǎːko/ #547
- Czech pomalu[ˈpomalu] #955
- Dutch langzaam/ˈlɑŋ.zaːm/ slowly, gradually, bit by bit #1,431
- English slow/sloʊ/ #1,039
- Esperanto malrapide/malraˈpide/ #1,268
- Estonian aeglaselt/ˈɑe̯ɡ̊lɑselt/ #1,078
- Finnish hitaasti/ˈhitɑːstiˣ/ #1,668
- Galician paso/ˈpaso/ #674
- Georgian ნელა[ne̞ɫä] #759
- German langsam/ˈlaŋzaːm/ slowly, gradually, carefully #643
- Greek αργά/arˈɣa/ #474
- Hebrew לאט/leˈ(ʔ)at/ #641
- Hindi धीरे/d̪ʱiː.ɾeː/ slowly, sluggishly #743
- Hungarian lassan[ˈlɒʃːɒn] #861
- Icelandic hægt[ˈhaixt] #219
- Indonesian pelan-pelan/pə.lan.pəˈlan/ #1,531
- Italian piano/ˈpja.no/ #343
- Korean 천천히[ˈt͡ɕʰɘ(ː)ɲt͡ɕʰʌ̹nʝi] #336
- Latvian lēnāk/ˈlæːnaːːk/ slower, calmer, more slowly, more calmly;… #1,486
- Lithuanian pamažu[pɐmɐˈʒʊ] #1,946
- Macedonian полека[ˈpɔlɛka] slowly, gradually #337
- Malay perlahan/pərˈlahan/ At a slow pace; slowly #910
- Malayalam പതുക്കെ/pɐd̪ukke/ #253
- Norwegian sakte/ˈsɑktə/ slow, slowly #1,849
- Polish wolno/ˈvɔl.nɔ/ #1,073
- Portuguese devagar/de.vaˈɡa(ʁ)/ #1,371
- Romanian încet/ɨnˈt͡ʃet/ #956
- Russian медленно[ˈmʲedlʲɪn(ː)ə] #1,930
- Serbian polako/polǎːko/ #489
- Slovak pomaly/pɔmali/ #520
- Slovenian počasi/pɔt͡ʃáːsi/ #250
- Spanish despacio/desˈpaθjo/ #1,698
- Swedish sakta/ˈsakta/ #1,568
- Tagalog dahan-dahan/ˌdahan ˈdahan/ #923
- Tamil மெல்ல/mɛllɐ/ softly; slowly; quietly; gently, without force #1,908
- Telugu నెమ్మదిగా/ˈnemmaˌdiɡaː/ #342
- Turkish yavaşça/ja.vaʃ.t͡ʃa/ #1,650
- Ukrainian повільно[pɔˈʋʲilʲnɔ] #1,869
- Urdu آہستہ/ɑː.ɦɪs.t̪ɑ(ː)/ #1,382
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 Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.