Either in Different Languages
Discover 'Either' in 134 Languages: Dive into Translations, Hear Pronunciations, and Uncover Cultural Insights.
Either
Afrikaans óf | ||
Albanian ose | ||
Amharic ወይ | ||
Arabic إما | ||
Armenian կամ | ||
Assamese যিকোনো এটা | ||
Aymara o | ||
Azerbaijani ya da | ||
Bambara walima | ||
Basque bai | ||
Belarusian альбо | ||
Bengali হয় | ||
Bhojpuri कऊनो | ||
Bosnian bilo | ||
Bulgarian или | ||
Catalan tampoc | ||
Cebuano bisan | ||
Chinese (Simplified) 要么 | ||
Chinese (Traditional) 要么 | ||
Corsican sia | ||
Croatian ili | ||
Czech buď | ||
Danish enten | ||
Dhivehi ނުވަތަ | ||
Dogri जां | ||
Dutch een van beide | ||
English either | ||
Esperanto ĉu | ||
Estonian kas | ||
Ewe eya loo | ||
Filipino (Tagalog) alinman | ||
Finnish jompikumpi | ||
French soit | ||
Frisian itsij | ||
Galician tampouco | ||
Georgian ან | ||
German entweder | ||
Greek είτε | ||
Guarani oimeraẽva | ||
Gujarati ક્યાં તો | ||
Haitian Creole swa | ||
Hausa ko dai | ||
Hawaiian kekahi | ||
Hebrew אוֹ | ||
Hindi भी | ||
Hmong txawm yog | ||
Hungarian bármelyik | ||
Icelandic annað hvort | ||
Igbo ma obu | ||
Ilocano uray ania iti dua | ||
Indonesian antara | ||
Irish ach an oiread | ||
Italian o | ||
Japanese どちらか | ||
Javanese uga | ||
Kannada ಎರಡೂ | ||
Kazakh немесе | ||
Khmer ទាំង | ||
Kinyarwanda cyangwa | ||
Konkani एकतर | ||
Korean 어느 한 쪽 | ||
Krio ɔ | ||
Kurdish yan jî | ||
Kurdish (Sorani) هەریەک | ||
Kyrgyz же | ||
Lao ທັງ | ||
Latin aut | ||
Latvian arī | ||
Lingala to | ||
Lithuanian arba | ||
Luganda oba | ||
Luxembourgish entweder | ||
Macedonian или | ||
Maithili वा तँ | ||
Malagasy na | ||
Malay sama ada | ||
Malayalam ഒന്നുകിൽ | ||
Maltese jew | ||
Maori ahakoa | ||
Marathi एकतर | ||
Meiteilon (Manipuri) ꯑꯃ ꯅꯠꯇ꯭ꯔꯒ ꯑꯃ ꯑꯣꯏꯔꯕꯁꯨ | ||
Mizo zawk zawk | ||
Mongolian бас | ||
Myanmar (Burmese) တစ်ခုခုကိုဖြစ်စေ | ||
Nepali या त | ||
Norwegian enten | ||
Nyanja (Chichewa) mwina | ||
Odia (Oriya) କିମ୍ବା | ||
Oromo yookaan | ||
Pashto یو هم | ||
Persian یا | ||
Polish zarówno | ||
Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) ou | ||
Punjabi ਕਿਸੇ ਵੀ | ||
Quechua utaq | ||
Romanian fie | ||
Russian или | ||
Samoan a le | ||
Sanskrit अन्यतर | ||
Scots Gaelic an dàrna cuid | ||
Sepedi e ka ba | ||
Serbian било | ||
Sesotho ebang ke | ||
Shona kana | ||
Sindhi يا | ||
Sinhala (Sinhalese) එක්කෝ | ||
Slovak buď | ||
Slovenian bodisi | ||
Somali midkoodna | ||
Spanish ya sea | ||
Sundanese oge | ||
Swahili aidha | ||
Swedish antingen | ||
Tagalog (Filipino) alinman din | ||
Tajik низ | ||
Tamil ஒன்று | ||
Tatar яисә | ||
Telugu గాని | ||
Thai ทั้ง | ||
Tigrinya ወይ | ||
Tsonga kumbe | ||
Turkish ya | ||
Turkmen ýa-da | ||
Twi (Akan) sɛ anaa | ||
Ukrainian або | ||
Urdu یا تو | ||
Uyghur ياكى | ||
Uzbek yoki | ||
Vietnamese hoặc | ||
Welsh chwaith | ||
Xhosa nokuba yeyiphi | ||
Yiddish יעדער | ||
Yoruba boya | ||
Zulu noma |
Etymology & Notes
| Language | Etymology / Notes |
|---|---|
| Afrikaans | 'óf' is cognate with Dutch 'of' and German 'ob' (both meaning 'either') and is often used as a conjunction, but can also function as a preposition or a noun |
| Albanian | The word "ose" in Albanian originates from the Latin word "aut", meaning "either". It can also be used as a conjunction meaning "or". |
| Amharic | "ወይ ወይ" also means "Oh no" in the sense of something being unfortunate. |
| Arabic | إما can also be a conditional conjunction implying a result similar to "if". |
| Armenian | The word "կամ" can also mean "or" or even "but", depending on the context. |
| Azerbaijani | Ya da is also used in some phrases, such as "bir ya da iki," meaning "one or two" |
| Basque | Bai is also used in the sense of “yes”. It is a form of the verb “to have”, the first person of which is used to agree or affirm. |
| Belarusian | The alternate meaning of "альбо" is "or". |
| Bengali | The word "হয়" in Bengali can also mean "is" or "are" depending on the context. |
| Bosnian | The Bosnian word "bilo" can also mean "formerly" or "once". |
| Bulgarian | Bulgarian "или" derives from Proto-Slavic "ilь", meaning "alternative", "choice". It can also mean "or" in conditional sentences. |
| Catalan | The word "tampoc" derives from the Latin "nec tempus", originally meaning "not at all" or "never" but now only used in the negative sense of "either". |
| Chinese (Simplified) | 要么 originates from Middle Chinese, where it meant "either-or" or a choice between two possibilities. |
| Chinese (Traditional) | "要么" can also be translated as "or else" and "in order to." |
| Corsican | The Corsican word "sia" is cognate to the Latin word "sive", which also means "either or", and is also related to the Sardinian word "siat" and the Italian word "sia". |
| Croatian | The word "ili" in Croatian derives from Proto-Slavic "ili", meaning "or, either" and is cognate with the Latin "vel". |
| Czech | The Czech word "buď" derives from Proto-Slavic and shares its root with "byt" ("be"), implying a choice between alternatives that lead to different states of being. |
| Danish | The word "enten" is derived from Old Norse "eða," which also means "or." |
| Dutch | The word “een van beide” literally means “one of the two” in Dutch. |
| Esperanto | The word "ĉu" in Esperanto can also be used to mean "whether" or to introduce a question. |
| Estonian | "Kas" is derived from Proto-Finnic *kakse meaning "two" and is cognate with Finnish "kaksi" and Karelian "kakši". |
| Finnish | The Finnish word "jompikumpi" is an archaic form of the word "umpi", meaning "closed" or "full", and was originally used to refer to something that was completely enclosed or filled. |
| French | The word "soit" in French can also mean "so be it". |
| Frisian | "Itsij" is derived from the Old Frisian word "itsy", meaning "that", and is related to the modern Dutch word "hetzij". |
| Galician | The second definition of "tampouco" is "in the same way, thus", from Latin "tampŏcum", and it's rarely used. |
| Georgian | The Georgian word ან (an) derives from the Middle Persian conjunction ‘دن ‘ (ayn) 'or'. |
| German | The German word "entweder" originally meant "either" or "any of two"} |
| Greek | In ancient Greek, 'είτε' also meant 'if'. |
| Haitian Creole | The Creole word "swa" can also signify "one, a, some" as a universal quantifier. |
| Hausa | Ko dai', a Hausa word for 'either', is also used to express uncertainty or to seek confirmation in a question. |
| Hawaiian | Kekahi can also mean "some", "a few", or "certain" in Hawaiian. |
| Hebrew | או also means 'light' and is related to the word 'fire' אור (ʾōr). |
| Hindi | The word "भी" can also mean "even" or "too" in Hindi, and can be used to express additional emphasis or to indicate that something is included. |
| Hmong | The word "txawm yog" can also mean "although" or "even if". |
| Hungarian | "Bármelyik" derives from the word "bármely" ("any"), with the suffix "-ik" indicating the "one of many" aspect. |
| Icelandic | Annað hvort derives from the Old Norse "annat-hvárt", meaning "the one or the other" |
| Igbo | "Ma obu" is composed of "ma" meaning "or" and "ọbụ" meaning "either". "Ma" is an inclusive or while "ọbụ" is an exclusive or. |
| Indonesian | The word "antara" in Indonesian can also mean "among" or "between". |
| Irish | The Irish word "ach an oiread" can also mean "however much" or "as much as". |
| Italian | "O" comes from the Latin word "aut," also meaning "either," and is related to "or," from the Indo-European root "aw." |
| Japanese | どちらか (dochira ka) is an abbreviated form of とちら (dochira) ('which'), plus か (ka), a particle used for uncertainty. |
| Javanese | The word "uga" in Javanese can also refer to a negative particle (like "don't" or "no") when used in certain contexts. |
| Kannada | ಎರಡೂ is derived from the word 'ಎರಡು', meaning 'two', and is used in Kannada to refer to selecting one of two options or items. |
| Kazakh | "Немесе" (either) is a conjunction in Kazakh that can also mean "or else" or "if not". |
| Khmer | The Khmer word "ទាំង" can also mean both or all, depending on the context of the sentence. |
| Korean | In Korean, "어느 한 쪽" can also mean "one side," "one party," or "one direction." |
| Kurdish | The Kurmanji word “yan jî” is also used in Persian, and it was borrowed from Arabic, where it also means “either” and is commonly used in legal documents. |
| Kyrgyz | "Же" in Kyrgyz can also mean "in place of". |
| Lao | ທັງ may also mean "all" or "whole" when used with certain words. |
| Latin | Aut may come from the Sanskrit word “uta,” meaning “or.” |
| Latvian | Arī, a cognate of the Sanskrit word "ara" and the English word "ere," shares the meaning of "before" in some contexts. |
| Lithuanian | "Arba" is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂erbʰ- (“to divide, separate, inherit”), which gives rise to terms for inheritance and division in many Indo-European languages such as Modern English "heir" and Latin "orbus" (“orphaned")." |
| Luxembourgish | The word "entweder" in Luxembourgish has a secondary meaning of "or" when used in a disjunctive sense but not in a question. |
| Macedonian | The word "или" can also mean "else" or "or." |
| Malagasy | The Malagasy word "na" also means "yes" and "or". |
| Malay | In the past, the word was a repetition of |
| Malayalam | ഒന്നുകിൽ is often used in Malayalam as a sentence connector, as a substitute for conjunctions like 'but' or 'and'. |
| Maltese | The Maltese word "jew" also means "or" and is derived from the Arabic word "aw". |
| Maori | Ahakoa is also used in the sense of "even though" or "despite". |
| Marathi | The Marathi word "एकतर" "एकतर" is a variation of "एकेतर" and is used in conjunction with "किंवा", meaning "or", to denote two alternatives. |
| Mongolian | "Бас" is a Mongolian word with a similar meaning to the English "or" or "either", but it can also be used to emphasize the fact that a particular action or condition is the only one that is being considered. |
| Nepali | In Sanskrit, "या त" also means "or". |
| Norwegian | The suffix "-en" is also used as a diminutive in Norwegian, and can sometimes indicate that something is cute or endearing. |
| Nyanja (Chichewa) | Mwina derives from the Bantu root -mwine, meaning 'alone', and originally meant 'one or the other', but later came to mean 'either' in Nyanja. |
| Pashto | The word "yo hum" is derived from the Old Persian word "ya-uma", meaning "one or the other". |
| Persian | The word "یا" can also mean "or" and is derived from the Arabic word "أو". |
| Polish | «Zarówno» is an Old Slavic conjunction, meaning «at the same time». |
| Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) | "Ou" can also mean "where" in Portuguese, derived from the Latin word "ubi" meaning "in what place". |
| Punjabi | The Punjabi word "ਕਿਸੇ ਵੀ" can also be used to mean "any" or "some" in certain contexts. |
| Romanian | Fie is derived from Latin "aut", "sive" both meaning "or", but it can also mean "Fie!" expressing disgust. |
| Russian | The word "или" can also mean "or" in Russian. |
| Samoan | The word "a le" in Samoan can also be used to mean "each other." |
| Scots Gaelic | The Gaelic word "an dàrna cuid" has two other meanings besides "either"—namely, "the other part" and "the rest". |
| Serbian | The word "било" can also be used to mean "once" or "at some point in time." |
| Sesotho | In Tswana, the word "ebang ke" can also be used to mean "on the other hand". |
| Shona | In Old Shona, "kana" was a noun meaning "choice" or "option"} |
| Sindhi | This word also means 'or' and is derived from the Sanskrit word 'vā'. |
| Sinhala (Sinhalese) | The Sinhalese word "එක්කෝ" (either) is used to refer to both the possibility of choosing one of two options or the certainty of one option being true, depending on the context. |
| Slovak | The word "buď" in Slovak can also mean "to be" or "to come to be". |
| Slovenian | The word "bodisi" in Slovenian can also mean "let it be" or "whether". |
| Somali | The word |
| Spanish | In Spanish, 'ya sea' also means 'whether'. |
| Sundanese | The Sundanese word "oge" also refers to the second half of the day, from noon to evening. |
| Swahili | "Aidha" also comes from the word "adha", meaning "half" and can be translated to "half of the two" in English. |
| Swedish | The word "antingen" is a compound of the words "annat" and "tingen", meaning "the other thing". |
| Tagalog (Filipino) | The word "alinman din" came from the Spanish word "o din" which also means "either or". |
| Tajik | "Низ" (or as it's spelled nowadays, "нӣз") is an Old Persian word which literally means "low or bottom" and thus translates directly as "down" or "lower". |
| Tamil | The Tamil word "ஒன்று" can also mean "one", "a thing"," or "a person." |
| Telugu | "గాని" is also the name of a raga in Carnatic music, a collection of notes with a unique scale and aesthetic characteristics. |
| Thai | In the past, "ทั้ง" could also mean "both". |
| Turkish | In Turkish, the word "ya" originally meant "or" and has been used as an emphatic particle since the 13th century. |
| Ukrainian | The word “або” has various meanings and etymologies, deriving from the Proto-Slavic “abo”, meaning “if either”. |
| Urdu | The word "یا تو" (either) is derived from the Arabic word "أو" (or) which also means "else" or "otherwise" indicating a choice between two or more options. |
| Uzbek | The word "yoki" in Uzbek comes from the Persian word "ya" meaning "or". |
| Vietnamese | The word "hoặc" is derived from the Middle Vietnamese word "hộc" meaning "to learn," and has alternate meanings that derive from it, for example "scholarly" or "learned." |
| Welsh | The Welsh word "chwaith" originally meant "turn" or "time," and is related to the word "chwilio" meaning "to search." |
| Xhosa | In some dialects of Xhosa, "nokuba yeyiphi" can also mean "because" or "despite." |
| Yiddish | The word "יעדער" can also mean "every" or "each" in Yiddish. |
| Yoruba | The Yoruba word "boya" also means "maybe" or "perhaps" in English. |
| Zulu | Noma, meaning "either" in Zulu, is also the name of a pastoralist tribe of East Africa. |
| English | The word "either" can also mean "each of two". This definition is used when referring to two groups or categories. |