How to say “some” in 49 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 Arabic, where من is the 2nd most used word.
- Afrikaans party some, a few #528
- Albanian do #4
- Arabic من having partitive effect: of, some of, parts… #2
- Armenian ոմանք some people #538
- Basque bat a, an, some #3
- Bosnian malo little, few, some #81
- Bulgarian някой #92
- Catalan alguna #101
- Chinese 有些 #102
- Croatian malo little, few, some #84
- Czech nějaké #281
- Danish nogen #99
- Dutch ooit sometime, someday, at some point #250
- English won To reach some destination or object, despite… #162
- Esperanto jam already, prior to some time #56
- Estonian kunagi ever, once, sometime, some day, one day #98
- Finnish eräs a certain, some #878
- French quelque #117
- Galician uns #258
- Georgian ზოგი #1,193
- German paar some; few; a few #197
- Greek μερικές few, some #336
- Hebrew שום Some, any; found chiefly in negative… #127
- Hindi को in some set phrases, indicates the Possessor:… #20
- Hungarian pár some, a few, a couple #163
- Icelandic einhver someone/something, some #122
- Indonesian sebagian a part, some part #813
- Italian alcuni some, a few #687
- Korean 잠시 for a moment, while, some time #345
- Lithuanian nors some- #55
- Macedonian некој #69
- Malay titik to drip, to let some liquid fall one drop at… #1,005
- Malayalam പിന്നെ later; at some unspecified time in the future #18
- Persian بعضی #767
- Polish jakieś some; unspecified member of the category… #234
- Portuguese alguma some, any #129
- Romanian câteva some, a little, a few #224
- Russian немного a little, some #166
- Serbian malo little, few, some #79
- Slovak by Used as an independent part of some… #12
- Spanish alguna some, any #233
- Swedish något any, some, anything, something #108
- Tagalog kamakailan some days ago #1,934
- Tamil சில #35
- Telugu కొన్ని some, a few #40
- Turkish bazı some; an unspecified quantity or number of #270
- Ukrainian кілька several, a few, some #268
- Urdu کسی #49
- Vietnamese mấy some, an indefinite quantity greater than one #192
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.