While in Different Languages
Discover 'While' in 134 Languages: Dive into Translations, Hear Pronunciations, and Uncover Cultural Insights.
While
Afrikaans terwyl | ||
Albanian derisa | ||
Amharic እያለ | ||
Arabic في حين | ||
Armenian մինչդեռ | ||
Assamese যেতিয়া | ||
Aymara ukhakamaxa | ||
Azerbaijani isə | ||
Bambara ka .... to.... | ||
Basque bitartean | ||
Belarusian пакуль | ||
Bengali যখন | ||
Bhojpuri जब | ||
Bosnian dok | ||
Bulgarian докато | ||
Catalan mentre | ||
Cebuano samtang | ||
Chinese (Simplified) 而 | ||
Chinese (Traditional) 而 | ||
Corsican mentre | ||
Croatian dok | ||
Czech zatímco | ||
Danish mens | ||
Dhivehi ކަމެއް ހިނގަމުންދާ އިރު | ||
Dogri तगर | ||
Dutch terwijl | ||
English while | ||
Esperanto dum | ||
Estonian samas | ||
Ewe esi me | ||
Filipino (Tagalog) habang | ||
Finnish sillä aikaa | ||
French tandis que | ||
Frisian wylst | ||
Galician mentres | ||
Georgian ხოლო | ||
German während | ||
Greek ενώ | ||
Guarani upe aja | ||
Gujarati જ્યારે | ||
Haitian Creole pandan y ap | ||
Hausa yayin | ||
Hawaiian ʻoiai | ||
Hebrew בזמן | ||
Hindi जबकि | ||
Hmong thaum | ||
Hungarian míg | ||
Icelandic meðan | ||
Igbo mgbe | ||
Ilocano kabayatan | ||
Indonesian sementara | ||
Irish cé | ||
Italian mentre | ||
Japanese 一方 | ||
Javanese nalika | ||
Kannada ಹಾಗೆಯೇ | ||
Kazakh уақыт | ||
Khmer ខណៈពេល | ||
Kinyarwanda mugihe | ||
Konkani जाल्यार | ||
Korean 동안 | ||
Krio we | ||
Kurdish demek | ||
Kurdish (Sorani) لەکاتێکدا | ||
Kyrgyz while | ||
Lao ໃນຂະນະທີ່ | ||
Latin dum | ||
Latvian kamēr | ||
Lingala na ntango wana | ||
Lithuanian kol | ||
Luganda naye | ||
Luxembourgish wärend | ||
Macedonian додека | ||
Maithili एहि बीच | ||
Malagasy raha mbola | ||
Malay sementara | ||
Malayalam ആയിരിക്കുമ്പോൾ | ||
Maltese waqt | ||
Maori ia | ||
Marathi तर | ||
Meiteilon (Manipuri) ꯇꯣꯏꯒꯨꯝꯕꯁꯨꯡ | ||
Mizo laiin | ||
Mongolian байхад | ||
Myanmar (Burmese) စဉ်တွင် | ||
Nepali जबकि | ||
Norwegian samtidig som | ||
Nyanja (Chichewa) pamene | ||
Odia (Oriya) ଯେତେବେଳେ | ||
Oromo gaafa | ||
Pashto په داسې حال کې | ||
Persian در حالی که | ||
Polish podczas | ||
Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) enquanto | ||
Punjabi ਜਦਕਿ | ||
Quechua mientras | ||
Romanian in timp ce | ||
Russian в то время как | ||
Samoan a o | ||
Sanskrit यावद् | ||
Scots Gaelic fhad 'sa | ||
Sepedi mola | ||
Serbian док | ||
Sesotho ha a ntse a | ||
Shona apo | ||
Sindhi جڏهن | ||
Sinhala (Sinhalese) අතර | ||
Slovak zatiaľ čo | ||
Slovenian medtem | ||
Somali halka | ||
Spanish mientras | ||
Sundanese bari | ||
Swahili wakati | ||
Swedish medan | ||
Tagalog (Filipino) habang | ||
Tajik дар ҳоле | ||
Tamil போது | ||
Tatar шул вакытта | ||
Telugu అయితే | ||
Thai ในขณะที่ | ||
Tigrinya እስካብ | ||
Tsonga nkarhinyana | ||
Turkish süre | ||
Turkmen wagtynda | ||
Twi (Akan) berɛ a | ||
Ukrainian поки | ||
Urdu جبکہ | ||
Uyghur while | ||
Uzbek esa | ||
Vietnamese trong khi | ||
Welsh tra | ||
Xhosa ngeli xesha | ||
Yiddish בשעת | ||
Yoruba lakoko | ||
Zulu ngenkathi |
Etymology & Notes
| Language | Etymology / Notes |
|---|---|
| Afrikaans | The Afrikaans word "terwyl" is rooted in Germanic, with alternate meanings such as "in or through the time that" and "throughout the moment that." |
| Albanian | Albanian "derisa" is derived from Proto-Indo-European root *del- which means "to stay". It is also sometimes used to mean "but" in formal written text. |
| Amharic | The word "እያለ" also means "having" or "possessing" in Amharic. |
| Arabic | In Arabic, "في حين" can also mean "in fact" or "however". |
| Azerbaijani | The Azerbaijani word "isə" derives from the Persian word "isi" meaning "if" and can also mean "but" or "however" depending on the context. |
| Basque | The word "bitartean" in Basque has other meanings, such as "interim", "meantime", "during" or "in the meantime". |
| Belarusian | The word “пакуль” not only means “while”, but can also be used to denote the condition or time of some action, as well as in the sense of “in the meantime”, “meanwhile”. |
| Bengali | The word "যখন" can also mean "when" or "as" |
| Bosnian | The word "dok" can also mean "then" in temporal conjunctions. |
| Bulgarian | The Bulgarian word "докато'' is derived from the Proto-Slavic word "dokъdь", meaning "how long" or "until." |
| Catalan | Catalan "mentre" can also mean "as long as" or "provided that" |
| Cebuano | The Cebuano word "samtang" is often confused with "santang", which means 'to go against'. |
| Chinese (Simplified) | While the simplified form of “而” in Chinese is also used as a conjunction meaning “and” in English, the traditional form 爾 was used in that way. |
| Chinese (Traditional) | The Chinese character "而" (ér) can also mean "but", "then", or "and". |
| Corsican | "Mentre" can also mean "until" or "before" in Corsican. |
| Croatian | The word "dok" can also mean "until" or "until when". |
| Czech | „Zatím co“ dříve znamenalo „zatím“ a používalo se i na začátku vět, dnes už je v takovém významu zastaralé. |
| Danish | The word "mens" also means "meantime" in Swedish, and "meanwhile" in Danish and Norwegian. |
| Dutch | Terwijl, cognate to English "during", has also come to function as "whereas" and "however" in modern Dutch. |
| Estonian | The words "samas" and "sama" have multiple meanings, from the temporal "at the same time" to the locative "in the same place" or the comparative "the same kind". |
| Finnish | The Finnish word "sillä aikaa" is a contraction of the phrase "sillä aikaa kun," which means "at that time when." |
| French | In French, "tandis que" not only means "while," but also "whereas" and "meanwhile." |
| Frisian | The word "wylst" in Frisian is derived from the Old Frisian word "hwila", meaning "time". It is also cognate with the English word "while". |
| Georgian | The word ხოლო means "however" or "nonetheless" in some contexts. |
| German | The term "während" can refer to both concurrent timing and a spatial relationship. |
| Greek | While 'ενώ' mainly means 'while', it also translates to 'whereas' or 'even' during certain contexts. |
| Gujarati | જ્યારે is derived from the Sanskrit word 'yadi' meaning 'if' or 'supposing'. |
| Haitian Creole | The Haitian Creole word "pandanyap" originated from the French phrase "pendant que," meaning "during that time." |
| Hausa | In addition to its primary meaning "while," "yayin" also means "even if" in Hausa. |
| Hawaiian | The word ʻoiai, which usually means "while" in Hawaiian, can also mean "when," "since," or "before" depending on context. |
| Hebrew | The Hebrew word "בזמן" ("while") is also used in the sense of "during," "when," or "at the time when." |
| Hindi | In Sanskrit, “जबकि” means “nearness” and “immediately” and this relates to its adverbial usage indicating “while”. |
| Hmong | The word "thaum" can also mean "when, if". |
| Hungarian | The word "míg" can also mean "until", "as long as", or "however" in Hungarian depending on the context. |
| Icelandic | "Meðan" is also used as an idiom that translates to "by the grace of God" or "thankfully." |
| Igbo | The Igbo word "mgbe" can also mean "period of time", "season", or "occasion" in addition to "while". |
| Irish | The word "cé" also means "when" in the context of "when" it is raining. |
| Italian | "Mentre" has an ancient Latin origin as an accusative form of "mens" ("mind") and also refers to "interval", "period", or "space of time" in Italian. |
| Japanese | Another meaning of "一方" is "one side" or "one party" and is used when contrasting two sides of something. |
| Javanese | The word "nalika" is derived from the Sanskrit word "nālikā", which means "a tube". |
| Kannada | The word "ಹಾಗೆಯೇ" (hāgeyē) in Kannada, meaning "while," is etymologically linked to the verb "ಹಾಗು" (hāgu), which means "to be similar, to match, to be equal to," and can also be translated as "and, as well, besides." |
| Kazakh | The word "уақыт" in Kazakh, also means "time". |
| Khmer | The word "ខណៈពេល" also means "during" or "at the time of" in Khmer. |
| Kurdish | The word "demek" in Kurdish can also mean "namely" or "indeed". |
| Kyrgyz | "While" is a conjunction meaning "at the same time as" and "although" in Kyrgyz. |
| Latin | "Dum" can refer to the time of an action or the condition under which it occurs. |
| Latvian | The word "kamēr" in Latvian is derived from the Proto-Baltic root *kam, meaning "time" or "period". |
| Lithuanian | The word "kol" in Lithuanian can also mean "until" or "as long as". |
| Luxembourgish | The verb "wärend" can also mean "during". |
| Macedonian | The word "додека" is also used to mean "until" or "before" in Macedonian and is derived from the Proto-Slavic word *dъkъde, which means "where". |
| Malay | Although the word "sementara" usually means "while", it can also be used to mean "temporary" or "provisional." |
| Maltese | The Maltese word "waqt" is derived from the Arabic word "waqt" meaning "time" or "period". |
| Maori | The word "ia" in Maori can also mean "that" or "therefore". |
| Marathi | The word 'तर' in Marathi can also mean 'but' or 'however'. |
| Mongolian | The word "байхад" can also mean "at the time when" or "when it comes to". |
| Nepali | When a comma is used with "जबकि," it means "but" or "however". |
| Norwegian | "Samtidig" shares its root with the English word "contemporary". |
| Nyanja (Chichewa) | "Pamene" in Nyanja (Chichewa) also means "when" or "as soon as". |
| Polish | Podczas "pod" + "czas" "time" - during the time. |
| Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) | The word "enquanto" can also mean "until" or "meanwhile" in Portuguese. |
| Romanian | The Romanian word "în timp ce" directly translates to the English phrase "in time what," which is obsolete in modern English but still used in legal and formal contexts. |
| Russian | In Russian, в то время как also means 'whereas' as well as 'meanwhile'. |
| Samoan | The word "'a o" can also be used to mean "since" or "until". |
| Scots Gaelic | The word ''fhad 'sa'' is also used to refer to a space or period of time. |
| Serbian | "Док" can also mean "a pier" or "a wharf". |
| Sesotho | "Ha a ntse a" is also used to express the idea of "even". |
| Shona | The word "apo" in Shona can also mean "in order to", "so that", or "in the case of". |
| Sindhi | The Sindhi word "جڏهن" can also mean "then" or "when". |
| Sinhala (Sinhalese) | The word 'අතර' in Sinhala can also mean 'between', 'amongst', or 'during'. |
| Slovak | The Slovak word "zatiaľ čo" can also mean "in the meantime." |
| Slovenian | The word "medtem" is derived from the Proto-Slavic word *medь, which means "time" or "period". |
| Somali | In Somali, "halka" also means "here" or "in this instance." |
| Spanish | "Mientras" also means "meanwhile" or "in the meantime" in Spanish. |
| Sundanese | The word "bari" also means "still" and "anyway" in Sundanese. |
| Swahili | In the 19th century, 'wakati' was used to mean 'whenever' or 'at the time when' |
| Swedish | The Swedish "medan" is related to "midja" (`middle`), indicating that the time span it denotes takes place during another time span or action. |
| Tagalog (Filipino) | The root word of "habang" is "haba," which means "length," suggesting its original meaning as "during the length of time." |
| Tajik | The Tajik word "дар ҳоле" can also mean "the state of something" or "the way something is done". |
| Tamil | போது is related to the Sanskrit word "bodhate" meaning “to realize” and the Tamil infinitive verb "podukka" meaning "to understand". |
| Telugu | The Telugu word 'అయితే' not only means 'while', but also 'however' and 'but' when used in a conditional sense. |
| Thai | In Thai, "ในขณะที่" can also be used to introduce the main clause in a conditional or concessional sentence |
| Turkish | "Süre" is also a word of Arabic origin and means "duration" in Turkish. |
| Ukrainian | The Ukrainian word "поки" can also mean "until" or "as long as". |
| Urdu | "جبکہ" means "but" or "on the other hand" in addition to "while" in Urdu. |
| Uzbek | In Uzbek, the word "esa" can also mean "therefore" or "because of." |
| Vietnamese | Trong khi "trong" có thể chỉ không gian thì "kì" lại có thể biểu thị thời gian. |
| Welsh | Welsh 'tra' not only means 'while' but also 'towards', 'across' and 'through'. |
| Xhosa | The Xhosa word "ngeli xesha" can also mean "during the time of" or "at the time of". |
| Yiddish | In Yiddish, "בשעת" can also mean "at the moment" or "presently." |
| Yoruba | It is a Yoruba-language conjunction that can also mean "and". |
| Zulu | The Zulu word 'ngenkathi' can also refer to the simultaneous occurrence of two actions or events. |
| English | The word “while” comes from the Old English word “hwīl”, which meant “time” or “occasion”. |