How to say “wait” 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 Basque, where itxaron is the 100th most used word.
- Afrikaans gewag to wait #787
- Albanian dale wait, stay, hold up #1,522
- Arabic انتظر to wait for, to await #172
- Armenian սպասել to wait; to expect, await #570
- Basque itxaron to wait for, to await #100
- Bengali অপেক্ষা #177
- Bosnian čeka to wait, await #700
- Bulgarian чакам to wait #647
- Catalan espera to wait, wait for, await #210
- Chinese 等待 to wait; to await #222
- Croatian čeka to wait, await #645
- Czech počkej to wait #268
- Danish vent #171
- Dutch wacht to wait #157
- English patient Willing to wait if necessary; not losing… #1,111
- Esperanto atendu to wait #150
- Estonian oodata to wait, await #540
- Finnish odota to wait, await, expect, anticipate #213
- French attends to wait for, to await #227
- Galician agarda to wait for #448
- German warte to wait #259
- Greek περίμενε wait, wait for, expect #211
- Hebrew המתנה A wait: a delay, a period of waiting #1,365
- Hindi इंतज़ार wait, waiting; expectation #532
- Hungarian várj to wait for someone or something #173
- Icelandic bíddu wait a minute #113
- Indonesian tunggu to wait #120
- Italian aspetta to wait for, await, wait #208
- Latvian pagaidi to wait for a while #166
- Lithuanian palauk to wait a bit; to hang on #137
- Macedonian чека to wait, wait for, to await #484
- Malay tunggu to wait #113
- Malayalam കാത്തിരിക്കുക to wait #1,104
- Norwegian vent to stay put, to wait, to delay #160
- Persian انتظار wait, waiting #456
- Polish czekaj to wait #377
- Portuguese espera to wait; to await #163
- Russian ждать to wait for #656
- Serbian čeka to wait, await #635
- Slovak čakať to wait #448
- Slovenian čakati to wait #550
- Spanish esperas #2,272
- Swedish vänta to wait #128
- Tagalog teka wait a moment!; hold on for a while! #100
- Tamil காத்திரு to wait, expect, look forward to, await #613
- Turkish bekle To wait for, to await #202
- Ukrainian чекати to wait #792
- Urdu انتظار wait, waiting #115
- Vietnamese chờ to wait for; to await #270
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.