Strong, Fate, Faith: Bold Words in 50 Languages

Strong is sterk in Dutch, silný in Czech, חזק in Hebrew and kuat in Indonesian. Fate is Schicksal in German, судьба in Russian and kader in Turkish, and war is guerra in Spanish, война in Russian and 전쟁 in Korean. Below are 11 bold words, from strong and brave to faith, war, blood and revenge, in 50 languages and more than a dozen scripts.

Every word comes from real usage data, not a phrasebook, and each section links to the full list on our free Say it in any language tool. Looking for freedom, soul, destiny, hope, courage, peace or victory? Those are in our powerful words post.

#Where these words come from

Each /tools/say page lists an English word in up to 53 languages. The words are ranked by how often they appear in film and TV subtitles (the OpenSubtitles 2018 frequency lists) and matched to English through Wiktionary, so every page shows where the word ranks in its language.

Three things to know before you copy anything:

• Frequency lists count spellings, not meanings. If a word for “brave” is spelled like an everyday phrase, it ranks very high for the wrong reason. We only print rows whose meaning matches, and we say where the full page’s “most common” claim is one of these.
• You get the form people say, not always the dictionary form. Subtitles are speech, so a row can be “I promise” instead of “promise”, or a noun in the case it takes inside a sentence. We mark the ones that matter.
• The lists are lowercase. We capitalize German nouns (Schicksal, Rache) the way you’d see them in a sentence.

#Strong in different languages

Malay kuat (#298) is the most common, followed by Albanian fortë (#318) and Tagalog malakas (#350); Indonesian uses kuat too. Adjectives change their endings, so the Spanish and Italian rows are plurals and the French one is feminine.

The full page lists 48 languages, but several rows came in through the word “strong” in a definition. Hindi प्यार (#123) is love (“strong affection”), Korean 본드 is glue (“strong glue”), and the German row is a grammar term. There is no plain German row for strong in this data.

See “strong” in all 48 languages →

#Brave in different languages

Malay berani (#434) is the most common. Hindi बहादुर and Urdu بہادر are one word. Many of these come in pairs with the word for courage on the courage page: Romanian curaj and curajos, Serbian hrabrost and hrabar, Persian شجاعت and شجاع, Malay keberanian and berani, Tagalog katapangan and matapang.

The page’s top row, Arabic أليس (#77), means “isn’t it?” and has nothing to do with bravery. Czech čelit is “to brave” in the sense of facing something, Macedonian херој is “hero”, and Latvian drošs is also the everyday word for “safe”.

See “brave” in all 36 languages →

#Fate in different languages

Urdu قسمت (#419) is the most common real match, and it’s related to the English word “kismet”. The page’s top rows are not: Italian caso means “chance” or “case”, and Portuguese and Galician sorte and Greek τύχη are usually “luck”, as in “good luck”.

Two languages picture fate as something written on you. Armenian ճակատագիր is built from the words for forehead and writing, and Persian سرنوشت from “head” and “written”. Turkish kader and Indonesian takdir both come from Arabic. Most of these words also mean destiny, which has its own section in the powerful words post.

See “fate” in all 32 languages →

#Faith in different languages

Bengali বিশ্বাস (#117) and Hindi विश्वास (#244) rank highest, but they cover belief and trust too, and both languages build the everyday verb “to believe” on them. Of the words that mean faith first, Georgian რწმენა (#505) leads. Persian and Urdu ایمان and Malay iman are one word from Arabic, and it usually means religious faith.

Many rows on the full page are the verb “to believe”: Chinese 相信, Vietnamese tin, and Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian vjerujem (“I believe”). German glauben (#280) is mostly the verb too. Czech víru and Polish wiary are case forms.

See “faith” in all 37 languages →

#Trust in different languages

Persian اعتماد (#246) is the most common real match, then Malayalam വിശ്വാസം (#310) and Afrikaans vertrou (#315). Polish zaufaj and Hungarian bízz are commands, the way you’d say “trust me” in a film. Hindi भरोसा and Urdu بھروسہ are one word.

Trust and faith overlap a lot: Hebrew אמון, Italian fiducia, Romanian încredere and Tagalog tiwala appear on both pages. The top rows here (Chinese 相信, Vietnamese tin, Indonesian percaya) mostly mean “to believe”.

See “trust” in all 45 languages →

#Promise in different languages

People mostly promise out loud, in the first person, so many rows are “I promise” or “promised”. Urdu وعدہ (#178) is the most common, and Hindi वादा is the same word; Persian قول (#247) is “promise” in the sense of “my word”.

The page’s real top row is Bengali করার (#69), but that spelling is mostly a form of the verb “to do”. Italian giuro is “I swear”, and Polish słowo is “word”, as in “you have my word”.

See “promise” in all 45 languages →

#Protect in different languages

If you’re looking up protect in other languages, expect verbs: every row here is “to protect”. Basque babestu (#459) is the most common, followed by Indonesian melindungi (#560). Danish and Norwegian share beskytte, and Czech chránit and Polish chronić are close.

On the full page, French sauver and Latvian glābt are really “to save”, and Chinese 保佑 is “to bless and protect”, the word used in prayers.

See “protect” in all 36 languages →

#War in different languages

War is in 50 of the 53 languages, and it ranks high in almost all of them. Urdu جنگ (#126) and Malayalam യുദ്ധം (#139) are the most common, then Galician guerra (#175). Persian writes جنگ the same way as Urdu, and Hindi युद्ध, Bengali যুদ্ধ and Malayalam യുദ്ധം are one Sanskrit word in three scripts.

Spanish, Italian and Portuguese guerra and French guerre come from the same old Germanic word as English “war”. The page’s Dutch row, krijgen (#223), is “to get”, so we left it out. German Kriege is the plural, “wars”, and Greek πόλεμο is the form the word takes as an object.

See “war” in all 50 languages →

#Blood in different languages

Persian خون (#195) is the most common, then Malayalam രക്തം (#251), Armenian արյուն (#271) and Urdu خون (#273), which is the same written word as the Persian. Bengali রক্ত and Malayalam രക്തം share a Sanskrit root, and Malay and Indonesian both say darah.

The families are easy to see: sangre, sang and sangue in the Romance languages, Blut, bloed and blod in the Germanic ones, and krev, krv and кровь in the Slavic ones. Estonian verd, Finnish verta, Polish krwi and Lithuanian kraujo on the full page are case forms, and the Hungarian row means “blood vessel”.

See “blood” in all 49 languages →

#Revenge in different languages

Revenge is the rarest word here, in 30 languages. Malayalam പ്രതികാരം (#495) is the most common, then Bengali প্রতিশোধ (#679) and Persian انتقام (#855). Persian and Urdu share انتقام, and Turkish intikam is the same Arabic word in Latin letters.

Italian vendetta is the word English borrowed for a long-running feud. The Nordic words (hævn, hevn, hämnd, hefnd) are one family. Hungarian bosszút and Lithuanian keršto on the full page are case forms.

See “revenge” in all 30 languages →

#Wish in different languages

Wish is found in 50 languages, but it’s the messiest word here, because in most languages the commonest word near it is “to want”. Chinese 希望 (#25) also means hope, and Tagalog sana (#122) is a little word that adds “I wish” or “if only” to a sentence, like Greek μακάρι, Persian کاش and Hebrew הלוואי. Among rows glossed “wish” first, Danish ønsker (#300) leads, then Bengali ইচ্ছা (#326) and Malayalam ആഗ്രഹം (#327). Hindi इच्छा and Bengali ইচ্ছা are one word.

The page names Esperanto volas (#40) as the most common, but it means “wants”, as do French veux, Portuguese quero and Turkish istiyorum. Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian neće is “won’t”, Albanian lutem is part of the everyday “please”, and Czech aby is “so that”.

See “wish” in all 50 languages →

#Mix-ups to watch for

These are the rows on the full pages that look like a match but aren’t, or mostly mean something else. Several of them are the page’s own “most common” pick.

#Check a word with a native speaker on LangX

A table tells you what people say; a native speaker tells you how it feels. Is the word poetic or plain? Is it the form you’d write on its own? Does it mean something else too?

On LangX, you’re matched with people who speak the language you’re learning and are learning yours. Send the word, or a photo of your design, and ask what it means to them. If you get a word wrong in your message, your partner can hold it to correct it. Corrections are unlimited on every plan, and translation is built into the chat. The free plan gives you five new conversations a day, with replies unlimited. It isn’t a translation service, and nobody has to answer, but it puts you in touch with people who use the language every day. You can get the app here, or read how to find a language exchange partner first.

9:41

Lucía M. Online

Today

Hold any message to correct it — corrections are the most useful thing you can send.

¿Cómo fue tu fin de semana? Cuéntame en inglés si quieres. How was your weekend? Tell me in English if you like. 09:12

Fui a la playa con mi hermana. Hacía mucho calor y yo no llevé agua. 09:14 · Read

Correction from Lucía Hacía mucho calor y yo no llevé agua. Hacía mucho calor y no llevé agua. The «yo» isn't wrong, it just sounds emphatic — like you specifically forgot. 09:15

Message in Spanish…

For freedom, soul, destiny, hope and peace, see powerful words in different languages. For feelings, see emotion words; for sea, sky and fire, nature words; for swords, heroes and monsters, fantasy words; and for mother, father and friend, family words. To see what else is near the top of a language, start with its most common words list.

#FAQ

#How do you say “strong” in different languages?

Dutch sterk, Swedish stark, Czech silný, Hungarian erős, Georgian ძლიერი, Hebrew חזק, Turkish güçlü, Indonesian and Malay kuat and Vietnamese mạnh. The strong page has 48 languages, though some rows are false matches.

#How do you say “fate” in different languages?

Spanish destino, French destin, German Schicksal, Russian судьба, Persian سرنوشت, Urdu قسمت, Turkish kader and Indonesian takdir. The fate page has 32 languages.

#How do you say “war” in other languages?

Spanish, Italian and Portuguese guerra, French guerre, Russian война, Hebrew מלחמה, Persian and Urdu جنگ, Hindi युद्ध, Turkish savaş and Korean 전쟁. The war page has 50 languages.

#Is faith the same word as trust or belief?

Often, yes. Hindi विश्वास and Bengali বিশ্বাস cover faith, belief and trust, and Hebrew אמון, Italian fiducia and Tagalog tiwala appear on both the faith and trust pages. Words like Persian ایمان are closer to religious faith.

#Can I use these words for a tattoo?

Yes, but check first. Some rows are verb forms, case forms or plurals, and some have a second meaning. Ask a native speaker, ideally two, before you commit.