How to say “wait” in 49 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.
- esperas/esˈpeɾas/ Spanish
- 等待/tɤŋ²¹⁴⁻²¹ taɪ̯⁵¹/ Chinese
- इंतज़ार/ɪn.t̪ə.zɑːɾ/ Hindi
- περίμενε/peˈri.me.ne/ Greek
- սպասել/spɑˈsel/ Armenian
- অপেক্ষা/ɔpekʰːa/ Bengali
“wait” in Spanish: esperas · German: warte · Portuguese: espera · Chinese: 等待 · Hindi: इंतज़ार · Greek: περίμενε
It is commonest in Malay, where tunggu is the 113th most used word.
Wait in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans gewag/xəˈvɐx/ to wait #787
- Albanian dale/dalɛ/ wait, stay, hold up #1,522
- Arabic انتظر/in.ta.ðˤa.ra/ to wait for, to await #172
- Armenian սպասել/spɑˈsel/ to wait; to expect, await #570
- Basque itxaron/it͡ʃaɾon/ to wait for, to await #100
- Bengali অপেক্ষা/ɔpekʰːa/ #177
- Bosnian čeka/ˈtʃɛkɐ/ to wait, await #700
- Bulgarian чакам[ˈt͡ʃa̟kɐm] to wait #647
- Catalan espera[əsˈpe.ɾə] to wait, wait for, await #210
- Chinese 等待/tɤŋ²¹⁴⁻²¹ taɪ̯⁵¹/ to wait; to await #222
- Croatian čeka/ˈtʃɛkɐ/ to wait, await #645
- Czech počkej[ˈpot͡ʃkɛj] to wait #268
- Danish vent[ˈvɛnˀd̥] #171
- Dutch wacht/ʋɑxt/ to wait #157
- English patient/ˈpɛjʃənt/ Willing to wait if necessary; not losing… #1,111
- Esperanto atendu/aˈtendu/ to wait #150
- Estonian oodata/ˈoːd̥ɑtɑ/ to wait, await #540
- Finnish odota/ˈodotɑˣ/ to wait, await, expect, anticipate #213
- French attends/a.tɑ̃/ to wait for, to await #227
- Galician agarda/aˈɡaɾda/ to wait for #448
- German warte[ˈvaʁtə] to wait #259
- Greek περίμενε/peˈri.me.ne/ wait, wait for, expect #211
- Hebrew המתנה/hamtaˈna/ A wait: a delay, a period of waiting #1,365
- Hindi इंतज़ार/ɪn.t̪ə.zɑːɾ/ wait, waiting; expectation #532
- Hungarian várj[ˈvaːrʝ] to wait for someone or something #173
- Icelandic bíddu/ˈpitʏ/ wait a minute #113
- Indonesian tunggu/ˈtuŋɡu/ to wait #120
- Italian aspetta/asˈpɛt.ta/ to wait for, await, wait #208
- Latvian pagaidi/ˈpaɡaidi/ to wait for a while #166
- Lithuanian palauk[pɐ¹ˈlɑˑʊk] to wait a bit; to hang on #137
- Macedonian чека[ˈt͡ʃɛka] to wait, wait for, to await #484
- Malay tunggu/ˈtuŋɡu/ to wait #113
- Malayalam കാത്തിരിക്കുക/kaːt̪t̪iɾikkjuɡɐ/ to wait #1,104
- Norwegian vent/ˈveːnt/ to stay put, to wait, to delay #160
- Persian انتظار[ʔen̪.t̪ʰe.zɒ́ːɹ] wait, waiting #456
- Polish czekaj/ˈt͡ʂɛ.kaj/ to wait #377
- Portuguese espera/isˈpɛ.ɾɐ/ to wait; to await #163
- Russian ждать[ʐdatʲ] to wait for #656
- Serbian čeka/ˈtʃɛkɐ/ to wait, await #635
- Slovak čakať/t͡ʃakac/ to wait #448
- Slovenian čakati/t͡ʃàːkati/ to wait #550
- Spanish esperas/esˈpeɾas/ #2,272
- Swedish vänta/²vɛnːta/ to wait #128
- Tagalog teka/ˈteka/ wait a moment!; hold on for a while! #100
- Tamil காத்திரு/kɑːt̪ːɪɾɯ/ to wait, expect, look forward to, await #613
- Turkish bekle/becˈle/ To wait for, to await #202
- Ukrainian чекати[t͡ʃeˈkate] to wait #792
- Urdu انتظار/ɪn.t̪ɪ.zɑːɾ/ wait, waiting #115
- Vietnamese chờ[t͡ɕəː˨˩] to wait for; to await #270
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), Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), CC BY-SA 4.0), Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 4.0), Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), 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.