How to say “towards” in 35 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.
- ко[kə] Russian
- प्रति/pɾə.t̪iː/ Hindi
- προς/ˈpros/ Greek
- նկատմամբ/nəkɑtˈmɑmpʰ/ Armenian
- நோக்கி/noːkːiː/ Tamil
“towards” in French: vers · Italian: incontro · Russian: ко · Hindi: प्रति · Greek: προς
It is commonest in Bulgarian, where към is the 108th most used word.
Towards in other languages, A to Z
- Arabic إلى/ʔi.laː/ to, towards #18
- Armenian նկատմամբ/nəkɑtˈmɑmpʰ/ towards, regarding, concerning #646
- Bengali দিকে/d̪ike/ toward, towards #106
- Bosnian prema/prêma/ towards, at #242
- Bulgarian към[kɤm] towards; to #108
- Croatian prema/prêma/ towards, at #225
- Czech k[k] to, toward, towards #47
- Danish til/te(l)/ to, towards #12
- Dutch naar/naːr/ to, towards in time, space, consequence,… #36
- English into/ˈɪn.tu/ To or towards the inside of #141
- Estonian pool/ˈpoːl/ at, to, towards #382
- Finnish vastaan/ˈʋɑstɑːn/ #226
- French vers/vɛʁ/ #379
- Galician á[aː] to the, towards the #33
- German zu/t͡suː/ to, towards #13
- Greek προς/ˈpros/ towards, toward, to #260
- Hebrew אל/ʔil/ to, towards, into #45
- Hindi प्रति/pɾə.t̪iː/ #911
- Hungarian felé[ˈfɛleː] to, towards, in the direction of #603
- Icelandic til[tʰɪl] to, towards #10
- Indonesian terhadap/tərˈhadap/ toward; towards #584
- Italian incontro/inˈkon.tro/ #885
- Macedonian кон/koːn/ towards, to #182
- Malay menuju/məˈnud͡ʒu/ to head towards; to go in the direction of #456
- Norwegian mot/muːt/ to, towards #136
- Polish raczej/ˈra.t͡ʂɛj/ denotes hesitation but a preference towards… #562
- Romanian spre/spre/ to, towards #288
- Russian ко[kə] alternative form of к: to, towards; by, for;… #323
- Serbian prema/prêma/ towards, at #248
- Spanish hacia/ˈaθja/ toward, towards #326
- Swedish emot/ɛˈmuːt/ towards, against #381
- Tagalog palabas/palaˈbas/ towards outside; outward #153
- Tamil நோக்கி/noːkːiː/ #770
- Telugu ఆకర్షించింది/ˈaːkarˌʂincindi/ to attract, draw towards oneself #496
- Vietnamese thiên[tʰiən˧˧] to focus on; to gravitate towards #521
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 Bengali (google (bn_BD), CC BY-SA 4.0), Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 4.0) and Vietnamese (vais1000 (vi_VN), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.