How to say “turn” 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 Hindi, where बारे is the 62nd most used word.
- Afrikaans draai to turn #368
- Albanian kthehem to turn, turn over, flip #289
- Arabic دور to turn in a circle, to spin, to whirl, to… #573
- Armenian դառնալ to become; to turn into #682
- Basque bihurtu to become, turn into #323
- Bengali পাক twist, turn #1,701
- Bosnian postati to become, turn, get #884
- Bulgarian услуга favour, good turn #818
- Catalan volta turn, spin #1,043
- Chinese 年前 before the turn of the year #595
- Croatian postati to become, turn, get #798
- Danish tur #490
- Dutch keer to turn around, to turn around an axis #160
- English become begin to be; turn into #522
- Esperanto turnu to turn #1,375
- Finnish löytyy to be found, be discovered, turn up #987
- French ensuite in turn, subsequently, thereafter, then #538
- Galician resultado to result, to turn out, to end up, to prove #1,385
- Georgian ატრიალებს to turn #1,538
- German dreht to turn #2,023
- Greek έγινε to become, turn into #190
- Hebrew סר to turn, to turn aside #1,503
- Hindi बारे time, turn #62
- Hungarian pedig and, while, whereas, in turn #117
- Icelandic snúa to turn #529
- Indonesian putar to turn #1,803
- Italian giro to turn, stir, turn over #365
- Latvian griez to turn, to spin #2,040
- Lithuanian tapo to become, get; to turn into #465
- Macedonian сврти to turn #722
- Malay menjadi to become; to turn into #88
- Malayalam ഊഴം one's turn; chance; term #1,063
- Norwegian driver to move; turn #547
- Persian نوبت #804
- Portuguese viram to turn #1,355
- Romanian apărut to appear, show up, turn up, emerge #959
- Russian оказаться to turn out, to be found, to prove #2,404
- Serbian postati to become, turn, get #923
- Slovak vypnúť to turn off, to shut down, to disable #1,094
- Slovenian izključiti to switch off, to turn off, to disable #1,492
- Spanish través bend, turn #789
- Swedish vänd to turn #1,313
- Tagalog umikot to turn round and round; to rotate #2,046
- Tamil சுற்று to rotate, circulate, turn around, revolve,… #537
- Telugu సారి time, turn, instance, occasion, repetition #644
- Turkish dön to turn #585
- Ukrainian повернутися to turn #629
- Urdu بار time, turn, occasion, instance, occurrence #109
- Vietnamese trở to turn, to change #185
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.