How to say “stop” in 51 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 Hungarian, where ne is the 25th most used word.
- Albanian ndal to stop, hold up #498
- Arabic توقف to stop, to come to a stop; to come to an end #141
- Armenian կասեցնել to suspend, stop #756
- Bengali থামা to stop #1,631
- Bosnian prestati to stop, quit #821
- Bulgarian спри to stop, to come to a halt/stand/stop/standsti… #290
- Catalan para to stop from continuing movement or action #665
- Chinese 停止 to stop; to suspend; to close #204
- Croatian zaustaviti to stop #695
- Czech přestaň to stop, desist, cease #424
- Danish stop to stop, halt #254
- Dutch stop to stop, to halt #330
- English died To stop living; to become dead; to undergo… #495
- Esperanto ĉesu to cease, desist, stop #253
- Estonian seisma to stand, to stop #850
- Finnish lopeta to stop, end, finish, quit #302
- French arrête to stop, to come to a standstill; to halt, to… #251
- Galician parar to stop #856
- Georgian გაჩერდი to stop #1,070
- German aufhören to stop; to quit; to cease #702
- Greek σταμάτα to halt, stop, stop off #272
- Hebrew נעצר to be stopped, to stop #1,622
- Hindi रुको to stop, to be stopped #210
- Hungarian ne don't, should/shall not, stop #25
- Icelandic stoppa to stop, to come to a stop #960
- Indonesian stasiun place where a vehicle may stop #1,093
- Italian smettila to stop or give up an activity; to leave off;… #637
- Korean 정지 stop, halt #1,083
- Latvian punktu stop/full stop, period #1,216
- Lithuanian nustoti to cease, stop #2,352
- Macedonian престане to stop, cease #1,220
- Malay berhenti to stop, to cease, to halt, to desist #172
- Malayalam ഓഫ് off, stop #225
- Norwegian slutt to stop, cease, quit; to no longer continue… #223
- Persian توقف stop, stopping, halt #1,295
- Polish przestań to stop doing something, to desist, to leave… #278
- Portuguese parar to stop #430
- Romanian opri to stop the movement of something #696
- Russian остановить to stop, to bring to stop #856
- Serbian prestati to stop, quit #975
- Slovak zastaviť to stop, to halt #390
- Slovenian nehati to stop #625
- Spanish parar to stop, halt #1,147
- Swedish sluta to stop, to end #174
- Tagalog tigil cessation; stop #334
- Tamil நிறுத்து to stop, halt #158
- Telugu ఆపు to stop #172
- Turkish dur to stop #148
- Ukrainian зупинити to stop #899
- Urdu اسٹیشن station, stop #875
- Vietnamese ngăn to stop or prevent someone from doing… #685
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.