Unless in Different Languages
Discover 'Unless' in 134 Languages: Dive into Translations, Hear Pronunciations, and Uncover Cultural Insights.
Updated on March 5, 2024
Unless is a small word that carries a big punch. It is a conjunction that means 'except if; if not.' Its significance lies in its ability to introduce a condition that must be met before the action in a sentence can occur. Without it, the meaning of many sentences would change dramatically. Unless is a word of importance in various cultural contexts, including literature and film, where it is often used to build suspense or create a twist in the narrative.
For instance, in the famous Shakespearean quote from Romeo and Juliet, 'Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say goodnight till it be morrow,' the word 'till' can be replaced with 'unless' to emphasize the condition of it not being morning yet. This highlights the timelessness of this word and its ability to convey meaning across centuries.
Given its significance and cultural importance, one might want to know its translation in different languages. Here are a few examples:
Unless
Unless in Sub-Saharan African Languages
| Afrikaans | tensy | ||
| 'Tensy' is another form used for both 'tensy nie', with the archaic plural, and the standard 'tensy nie dat'. "Tensy" originated from the Low German tensei as a conjunction for a negative conditional clause. | |||
| Amharic | ካልሆነ በስተቀር | ||
| Hausa | sai dai in | ||
| sai dai in | |||
| Igbo | belụsọ | ||
| Belụsọ is a conjunction in Igbo often used in negative contexts, and can also mean "however" or "but". | |||
| Malagasy | raha tsy | ||
| The Malagasy word "raha tsy" can also mean "if not" or "except" depending on the context. | |||
| Nyanja (Chichewa) | pokhapokha | ||
| Shona | kunze kwekunge | ||
| Kunze kwekunge's literal meaning is 'except if' which may also be used to mean 'unless'. | |||
| Somali | mooyee | ||
| Alternate meanings include "until" and "until that time". | |||
| Sesotho | ntle le haeba | ||
| Swahili | isipokuwa | ||
| Isipokuwa can also mean "lest" in Swahili. | |||
| Xhosa | ngaphandle kokuba | ||
| Yoruba | ayafi | ||
| "Ayafi" also means "except" and is often used in place of "ti o si" and "ti o ba si." | |||
| Zulu | ngaphandle kokuthi | ||
| The Zulu word "ngaphandle kokuthi" can also mean "except for" or "with the exception of". | |||
| Bambara | fɔ | ||
| Ewe | negbe | ||
| Kinyarwanda | keretse | ||
| Lingala | longola kaka | ||
| Luganda | mpozi nga | ||
| Sepedi | ntle le | ||
| Twi (Akan) | gye sɛ | ||
Unless in North African & Middle Eastern Languages
| Arabic | ما لم | ||
| The root of the Arabic word "ما لم" (unless) is "لم" (not), meaning that "ما لم" literally translates to "if not" or "in the absence of." | |||
| Hebrew | אֶלָא אִם | ||
| Literally translated from Arabic (إلا أن), it has an additional alternate meaning of "except". In modern Hebrew the two terms largely merged. | |||
| Pashto | غیر لدې چې | ||
| In Pashto, the word "غیر لدې چې" (gar ladē che) literally means "other than this that" or "except for this that." | |||
| Arabic | ما لم | ||
| The root of the Arabic word "ما لم" (unless) is "لم" (not), meaning that "ما لم" literally translates to "if not" or "in the absence of." | |||
Unless in Western European Languages
| Albanian | përveç nëse | ||
| Basque | ezean | ||
| "Eze" in Basque means "no" and "an" is an emphatic particle | |||
| Catalan | tret que | ||
| The origin of the word "tret que" is obscure, but it could be related to the Latin word "tractare" (to handle, to negotiate) or to the Occitan word "trestar" (to stop). | |||
| Croatian | osim ako | ||
| The word "osim ako" is an idiomatic Croatian construction, and also has the meanings "except for" and "only if". | |||
| Danish | med mindre | ||
| The word "med mindre" can also mean "but", "however", or "otherwise" depending on the context. | |||
| Dutch | tenzij | ||
| Tenzij is derived from the Middle Dutch word "ten" (to) and "si" (if), and originally meant "unless, if not". | |||
| English | unless | ||
| "Unless" comes from Old English "onles(s)," meaning "without" or "not." | |||
| French | sauf si | ||
| The word "sauf si" derives from the Latin "salvo si", meaning "safe if". | |||
| Frisian | of it moast wêze dat | ||
| Galician | agás | ||
| "Agás" comes from the old Galician-Portuguese "agaz" meaning “gate” and the Latin word “haec” meaning “this”. It originally meant “except the”. | |||
| German | es sei denn | ||
| German "es sei denn" derives from "es sei denn, dass" (should it be that) and is similar in meaning to English "supposing". | |||
| Icelandic | nema | ||
| In Icelandic, "nema" also means "to take" or "to receive." | |||
| Irish | mura rud é | ||
| "Mura rud é" is derived from the Old Irish "muna ruid é", meaning "if it is not a secret." | |||
| Italian | salvo che | ||
| The Italian word "salvo che" ultimately derives from the Latin phrase "salvo quod," which means "except that". | |||
| Luxembourgish | ausser wann | ||
| "Ausser wann" means "unless" and is a compound of "ausser" ("except") and "wann" ("when") | |||
| Maltese | sakemm | ||
| "Sakemm" is a Maltese word meaning "unless" and is derived from the Arabic word "as-sakkim", which means "the one who restrains". | |||
| Norwegian | med mindre | ||
| The Norwegian word "med mindre" has its origin in the phrase "med den mindre mulighet". | |||
| Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) | a menos que | ||
| In Portuguese, "a menos que" can also mean "except for" or "but for". | |||
| Scots Gaelic | mura | ||
| The Scots Gaelic "mura" is a contraction of "ma" and "ura," both meaning "if" and forming "unless". | |||
| Spanish | a no ser que | ||
| "A no ser que" derives from "a menos que" ("except that"), which comes from a negation of the comparative "más que" ("more than") with the preposition "de" ("of"), creating "menos que" ("less than"), and then with the definite article "el" ("the"). | |||
| Swedish | såvida inte | ||
| In 17th-century Swedish, "såvida inte" originally meant "on the condition that not". | |||
| Welsh | oni bai | ||
| In some contexts, "oni bai" can translate to "only if" or "in order to" instead of "unless." | |||
Unless in Eastern European Languages
| Belarusian | хіба што | ||
| The phrase "хіба што" is used interrogatively to soften a refusal or rejection. | |||
| Bosnian | osim ako | ||
| The word "osim ako" can also mean "apart from" or "except". | |||
| Bulgarian | освен ако | ||
| The word "освен ако" is a compound of the words "освен" (except) and "ако" (if). | |||
| Czech | pokud | ||
| The word "pokud" (if) in Czech comes from the Proto-Slavic word, "*po-kъdъ", meaning "when". | |||
| Estonian | kui ei | ||
| The Estonian word "kui ei" is a compound word of "kui" meaning "if" and "ei" meaning "no". Therefore, its meaning is close to "if not". | |||
| Finnish | ellei | ||
| The word "ellei" is also used in the names of certain Finnish people and places, such as Ellinjärvi (Lake Elli) and Ellivuori (Elli Hill). | |||
| Hungarian | hacsak | ||
| Hungarian "hacsak" means "unless", but also "only if" when used in negative sentences. | |||
| Latvian | ja vien | ||
| The word "ja vien" in Latvian is derived from the Proto-Baltic word "*jeigu vināds", meaning "if it is the same". | |||
| Lithuanian | nebent | ||
| The Lithuanian word "nebent" is similar to "niby" in Polish and "nibi" in Belorusian, all meaning "as if" or "seemingly" and possibly related to Proto-Indo-European "ne-bhi" meaning "not being, being without". | |||
| Macedonian | освен ако | ||
| The word "освен ако" can also mean "except" or "other than" in Macedonian. | |||
| Polish | chyba że | ||
| The Polish word "chyba że" ultimately originates from the German phrase "es sei denn dass" with the same meaning. | |||
| Romanian | dacă nu | ||
| The Romanian word "dacă nu" can also mean "but if" or "if not". | |||
| Russian | если только | ||
| The Russian word "если только" can be literally translated as "if only" or "unless" in English, though its meaning can vary depending on the context of the sentence. | |||
| Serbian | осим ако | ||
| The word "осим ако" derives from the Proto-Slavic word "*osьmь" meaning "apart" and "*ako" meaning "if". | |||
| Slovak | pokiaľ | ||
| The etymology of "pokiaľ" goes back to the Slavic word "poki" or "poka", meaning "until", with the added suffix "-ľ" indicating "up to a certain point." | |||
| Slovenian | razen | ||
| "Razen" is a conjunction used to indicate an exception to a statement. It is derived from the Old Church Slavonic word *razvě*, which means "apart from". | |||
| Ukrainian | хіба що | ||
| In Ukrainian, "хіба що" ("unless") was also used as "however," "in spite of everything" | |||
Unless in South Asian Languages
| Bengali | না হলে | ||
| Gujarati | સિવાય | ||
| The Gujarati word "સિવાય" ("unless") shares its root with the Sanskrit word "विना" ("separated from"), which also means "except" or "without." | |||
| Hindi | जब तक | ||
| जब तक means "until" or "so long as" in Hindi, depending on the context. | |||
| Kannada | ಹೊರತು | ||
| "ಹೊರತು" is derived from the words "ಹೊರ" (outside) and "ತು" (limit), meaning "outside the limit". | |||
| Malayalam | അല്ലാതെ | ||
| Marathi | जोपर्यंत | ||
| The Marathi word "जोपर्यंत" is derived from the Sanskrit word "यावत्" (yāvat), which means "until" or "as long as." | |||
| Nepali | नभएसम्म | ||
| The word "नभएसम्म" is derived from the Sanskrit word "नभसी" (sky) and the suffix "-सम" (until), implying "until the sky falls" or "never". | |||
| Punjabi | ਜਦ ਤੱਕ | ||
| Sinhala (Sinhalese) | හැර | ||
| Sinhala 'හැර' also means 'excluding' in English. | |||
| Tamil | தவிர | ||
| தவிர can also mean "except for" or "excluding" and is derived from the base word "தவிர்" (tavir), which means "to avoid" or "to escape from". | |||
| Telugu | తప్ప | ||
| "తప్ప" is derived from the Sanskrit word "tapa" meaning "heat" or "suffering". It can also mean "exception" or "apart from". | |||
| Urdu | جب تک | ||
| جب تک ('unless') is derived from the Persian phrases ‘gar tā’ ('if to') and ‘ki tā’ ('until'). | |||
Unless in East Asian Languages
| Chinese (Simplified) | 除非 | ||
| 除非 (chúfēi) 还可以作“除了”或“之外”解。 | |||
| Chinese (Traditional) | 除非 | ||
| 「除非」的字面意思是「除了」、「以外」，表示條件或限制。 | |||
| Japanese | そうでなければ | ||
| The word "そうでなければ" can also mean "if not" or "otherwise". | |||
| Korean | 아니면 | ||
| The word '아니면' can also mean 'if not' or 'otherwise'. | |||
| Mongolian | үгүй бол | ||
| The word "үгүй бол" can also mean "otherwise" or "if not". | |||
| Myanmar (Burmese) | မဟုတ်ရင် | ||
Unless in South East Asian Languages
| Indonesian | kecuali kalau | ||
| The word 'kecuali kalau' is derived from Arabic 'khilāf 'illā' which means 'except if'. | |||
| Javanese | kajaba | ||
| The Javanese word "kajaba" can also mean "except", "if not for" or "other than". | |||
| Khmer | លើកលែងតែ | ||
| Lao | ເວັ້ນເສຍແຕ່ | ||
| Malay | melainkan | ||
| In Malay, the word "melainkan" also means "except" or "but". | |||
| Thai | เว้นแต่ | ||
| เว้นแต่ is derived from the verb เว้น (leave), meaning to keep something apart from something else, or to refrain from doing something. | |||
| Vietnamese | trừ khi | ||
| The word "trừ khi" is derived from the Vietnamese word "trừ" (to subtract) and the word "khi" (time). It literally means "to subtract time" and implies that something will not happen unless a certain condition is met. | |||
| Filipino (Tagalog) | maliban kung | ||
Unless in Central Asian Languages
| Azerbaijani | halda | ||
| "Halda" also means "except" as "halda" derives from Old Turkic word "kalta" meaning "leaving something". | |||
| Kazakh | егер болмаса | ||
| Kyrgyz | эгер болбосо | ||
| Tajik | агар | ||
| In other meanings this word means "agar-agar" | |||
| Turkmen | bolmasa | ||
| Uzbek | agar bo'lmasa | ||
| The word "agar bo'lmasa" (unless) is the combination of "agar" (if) and "bo'lmasa" (it is not). | |||
| Uyghur | بولمىسا | ||
Unless in Pacific Languages
| Hawaiian | ke ʻole | ||
| The Hawaiian word "ke ʻole" can also mean "except" or "other than." | |||
| Maori | ki te kore | ||
| The Maori word "ki te kore" is derived from the phrase "ki te kaore," which means "in the absence of," and has the same meaning as the English word "unless." | |||
| Samoan | vagana | ||
| The word "vagana" can also be used in Samoan to mean "or else". | |||
| Tagalog (Filipino) | maliban kung | ||
Unless in American Indigenous Languages
| Aymara | juk'ampinsa | ||
| Guarani | ndaupéichairamo | ||
Unless in International Languages
| Esperanto | krom se | ||
| The Esperanto word "krom se" ("unless") is derived from the Esperanto word "krom" ("except") and the conjunction "se" ("if"). | |||
| Latin | nisi | ||
| "Nisi" is a term derived from the root "ne...sī," meaning "if not...then". | |||
Unless in Others Languages
| Greek | εκτός | ||
| In Classical Greek the word "εκτός" also meant "outside" and had a spatial sense. | |||
| Hmong | tshwj tsis yog | ||
| In English, "unless" means "except if" or "if not". In Hmong, "tshwj tsis yog" is derived from the words "tshwj" (not) and "tsib yog" (to be). | |||
| Kurdish | heke nebe | ||
| Turkish | sürece | ||
| In Turkish, the word 'sürece' also means 'during' or 'while'. | |||
| Xhosa | ngaphandle kokuba | ||
| Yiddish | סייַדן | ||
| The Yiddish word "סייַדן" ("unless") also means "except" or "unless it is" in some contexts. | |||
| Zulu | ngaphandle kokuthi | ||
| The Zulu word "ngaphandle kokuthi" can also mean "except for" or "with the exception of". | |||
| Assamese | নহ’লে | ||
| Aymara | juk'ampinsa | ||
| Bhojpuri | जब ले ना | ||
| Dhivehi | ނޫނީ | ||
| Dogri | जदूं तगर | ||
| Filipino (Tagalog) | maliban kung | ||
| Guarani | ndaupéichairamo | ||
| Ilocano | malaksid | ||
| Krio | nɔ gɛt wan valyu | ||
| Kurdish (Sorani) | مەگەر | ||
| Maithili | सिवाय | ||
| Meiteilon (Manipuri) | ꯑꯣꯏꯗꯔꯤꯕ ꯐꯥꯎꯕ | ||
| Mizo | loh chuan | ||
| Oromo | yoo ta'een ala | ||
| Odia (Oriya) | ଯେପର୍ଯ୍ୟନ୍ତ | ||
| Quechua | mana chayqa | ||
| Sanskrit | न यावत् | ||
| Tatar | булмаса | ||
| Tigrinya | እንተደኣ | ||
| Tsonga | handleka | ||