How to say “soon” 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 Arabic, where إذا is the 42nd most used word.
- Afrikaans nou-nou now-now, in a moment, soon #2,166
- Arabic إذا when, when it is that; as soon as; if #42
- Armenian շուտով soon, before long #171
- Basque laster #211
- Bosnian skoro #398
- Bulgarian щом as soon as #284
- Catalan aviat #309
- Chinese 就要 about to; on the point of; going to; soon; at… #117
- Croatian uskoro #425
- Czech jakmile as soon as #766
- Danish snart #253
- Dutch zodra as soon as #750
- Esperanto baldaŭ #237
- Estonian varsti #432
- Finnish heti right away, as soon as, immediately, at once #196
- French bientôt #491
- Galician axiña soon, promptly #381
- Georgian მალე #146
- German bald #383
- Greek σύντομα soon, quickly #461
- Hebrew בקרוב Soon, in the near future #438
- Hindi जल्दी quickly, rapidly; soon #218
- Hungarian hamarosan #531
- Icelandic sjáumst see you soon!, see you later!, later #276
- Indonesian lalu soon afterward #97
- Italian subito at once, immediately, as soon as possible,… #273
- Korean 곧 soon, at once, immediately, shortly,… #158
- Latvian drīz #321
- Lithuanian tuoj #151
- Macedonian наскоро #358
- Malay segera #396
- Malayalam ഉടനെ #226
- Norwegian snart soon, quickly, shortly #237
- Polish wkrótce #793
- Portuguese logo #414
- Russian скоро #339
- Serbian skoro #386
- Slovak skoro soon, shortly #236
- Slovenian kmalu #198
- Spanish pronto #332
- Swedish snart soon; within a short time #249
- Tagalog malapit #218
- Tamil விரைவில் #203
- Turkish çabuk quickly, soon #307
- Ukrainian скоро soon, before long #260
- Urdu جلد #319
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.