How to say “soon” 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.
- pronto/ˈpɾonto/ Spanish
- скоро[ˈskorə] Russian
- 곧[ko̞t̚] Korean
- σύντομα/ˈsidoˌma/ Greek
- בקרוב/bekaˈʁov/ Hebrew
- მალე[mäle̞] Georgian
“soon” in Spanish: pronto · French: bientôt · German: bald · Portuguese: logo · Korean: 곧 · Russian: скоро · Greek: σύντομα
It is commonest in Georgian, where მალე is the 146th most used word.
Soon in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans nou-nou/ˈnəʊˈnəʊ/ now-now, in a moment, soon #2,166
- Arabic إذا/ʔi.ðaː/ when, when it is that; as soon as; if #42
- Armenian շուտով/ʃuˈtov/ soon, before long #171
- Basque laster/las̺ter/ #211
- Bosnian skoro/skǒro/ #398
- Bulgarian щом[ʃtɔm] as soon as #284
- Catalan aviat[ə.βiˈat] #309
- Chinese 就要/t͡ɕi̯oʊ̯⁵¹⁻⁵³ jɑʊ̯⁵¹/ about to; on the point of; going to; soon; at… #117
- Croatian uskoro/ûskoro/ #425
- Czech jakmile[ˈjakmɪlɛ] as soon as #766
- Danish snart[ˈsnɑˀt] #253
- Dutch zodra/zoːˈdraː/ as soon as #750
- Esperanto baldaŭ/ˈbaldau̯/ #237
- Estonian varsti/ˈvɑrsti/ #432
- Finnish heti/ˈheti(ˣ)/ right away, as soon as, immediately, at once #196
- French bientôt/bjɛ̃.to/ #491
- Galician axiña/aˈʃiɲa/ soon, promptly #381
- Georgian მალე[mäle̞] #146
- German bald/balt/ #383
- Greek σύντομα/ˈsidoˌma/ soon, quickly #461
- Hebrew בקרוב/bekaˈʁov/ Soon, in the near future #438
- Hindi जल्दी/d͡ʒəl.d̪iː/ quickly, rapidly; soon #218
- Hungarian hamarosan[ˈhɒmɒroʃɒn] #531
- Icelandic sjáumst[ˈsjauː.ʏmst] see you soon!, see you later!, later #276
- Indonesian lalu/ˈlalu/ soon afterward #97
- Italian subito/ˈsu.bi.to/ at once, immediately, as soon as possible,… #273
- Korean 곧[ko̞t̚] soon, at once, immediately, shortly,… #158
- Latvian drīz/ˈdriːz/ #321
- Lithuanian tuoj[²ˈtuɔɪ̯] #151
- Macedonian наскоро[ˈnaskɔɾɔ] #358
- Malay segera/səɡəˈra/ #396
- Malayalam ഉടനെ/uɖɐne/ #226
- Norwegian snart/ˈsnɑːʈ/ soon, quickly, shortly #237
- Polish wkrótce/ˈfkrut.t͡sɛ/ #793
- Portuguese logo/ˈlɔ.ɡu/ #414
- Russian скоро[ˈskorə] #339
- Serbian skoro/skǒro/ #386
- Slovak skoro/skɔrɔ/ soon, shortly #236
- Slovenian kmalu/kmáːlu/ #198
- Spanish pronto/ˈpɾonto/ #332
- Swedish snart/snɑːʈ/ soon; within a short time #249
- Tagalog malapit/maˈlapit/ #218
- Tamil விரைவில்/ʋɪɾɐɪ̯ʋɪl/ #203
- Turkish çabuk/t͡ʃaˈbuk/ quickly, soon #307
- Ukrainian скоро[ˈskɔrɔ] soon, before long #260
- Urdu جلد/d͡ʒəld̪/ #319
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 Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), 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.