How to say “ability” in 32 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 Vietnamese, where được is the 15th most used word.
- Albanian aftësi skill, ability, proficiency #1,527
- Armenian շնորհք gift, talent, ability #1,390
- Bosnian sposobnost #2,408
- Catalan habilitats ability, skill #2,043
- Chinese 才能 ability; talent; competence #140
- Croatian sposobnost #2,465
- Czech schopnost skill, ability #2,222
- Danish evner #1,501
- Dutch gezicht seeing, the ability to observe visually,… #504
- English power The ability to do or undergo something #500
- Esperanto povon #1,976
- Estonian võib to be able, can, to have the ability to do… #132
- German fähigkeiten ability, capability #2,488
- Greek ικανότητα ability, capacity, capability, competence,… #2,329
- Hebrew כוח Strength: the physical ability to do work, to… #520
- Hindi बोलती ability to speak, speaking #2,181
- Icelandic getur #67
- Indonesian kemampuan #1,038
- Korean 줄 ability, method; how to #70
- Latvian spēju #896
- Macedonian способност ability, capability, capacity, competence,… #2,060
- Malay bakat #1,169
- Malayalam കഴിവ് ability, potential #551
- Persian قادر able; with the ability to #1,336
- Serbian sposobnost #2,446
- Slovak schopnosť skill, ability #984
- Swedish förmåga ability, skill #2,489
- Tagalog kakayahan ability; skill #1,425
- Tamil சக்தி power, ability, energy, force, strength #644
- Turkish yetenek skill, ability #2,311
- Urdu اوقات means, capacity, ability #745
- Vietnamese được particle that expresses ability, possibility #15
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.