How to say “slowly” in 46 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 Icelandic, where hægt is the 219th most used word.
- Albanian ngadalë slow, slowly #557
- Arabic مهلا act slowly, gently, leisurely! #260
- Armenian դանդաղ #875
- Bengali আস্তে #341
- Bosnian polako #495
- Bulgarian бавно #1,059
- Chinese 慢慢 slowly; leisurely #380
- Croatian polako #547
- Czech pomalu #955
- Dutch langzaam slowly, gradually, bit by bit #1,431
- English slow #1,039
- Esperanto malrapide #1,268
- Estonian aeglaselt #1,078
- Finnish hitaasti #1,668
- Galician paso #674
- Georgian ნელა #759
- German langsam slowly, gradually, carefully #643
- Greek αργά #474
- Hebrew לאט #641
- Hindi धीरे slowly, sluggishly #743
- Hungarian lassan #861
- Icelandic hægt #219
- Indonesian pelan-pelan #1,531
- Italian piano #343
- Korean 천천히 #336
- Latvian lēnāk slower, calmer, more slowly, more calmly;… #1,486
- Lithuanian pamažu #1,946
- Macedonian полека slowly, gradually #337
- Malay perlahan At a slow pace; slowly #910
- Malayalam പതുക്കെ #253
- Norwegian sakte slow, slowly #1,849
- Polish wolno #1,073
- Portuguese devagar #1,371
- Romanian încet #956
- Russian медленно #1,930
- Serbian polako #489
- Slovak pomaly #520
- Slovenian počasi #250
- Spanish despacio #1,698
- Swedish sakta #1,568
- Tagalog dahan-dahan #923
- Tamil மெல்ல softly; slowly; quietly; gently, without force #1,908
- Telugu నెమ్మదిగా #342
- Turkish yavaşça #1,650
- Ukrainian повільно #1,869
- Urdu آہستہ #1,382
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.