How to say “accident” in 41 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 English, where find is the 144th most used word.
- Arabic صدفة chance, accident, coincidence #1,833
- Armenian պատահականություն coincidence, chance, accident #751
- Bengali দুর্ঘটনা accident, mishap #818
- Bosnian nesreća #1,532
- Chinese 事故 accident; mishap #767
- Croatian nesreća #1,294
- Czech náhodou by accident #786
- Danish ulykke #1,429
- Dutch toeval accident, chance #1,746
- English find To encounter or discover by accident; to… #144
- Esperanto akcidento #1,399
- Estonian avarii breakdown, crash, accident #2,171
- Finnish onnettomuus #2,191
- French accident #735
- German unfall #1,058
- Greek ατύχημα accident, mishap #805
- Hebrew תאונה #921
- Hindi दुर्घटना accident, mishap #1,114
- Hungarian baleset #1,080
- Icelandic slys #799
- Korean 사고 an accident #526
- Latvian negadījums mishap, accident, incident, mischance #2,125
- Lithuanian avarija accident, breakdown, wreck, crash #1,811
- Malay kemalangan #704
- Malayalam അപകടം #299
- Norwegian ulykke #1,319
- Persian تصادف accident, crash #842
- Polish wypadek #724
- Portuguese acidente #775
- Romanian accident #772
- Russian случайно accidentally, by accident #1,224
- Serbian nesreća #1,423
- Slovak nehoda accident, mishap #724
- Slovenian nesreča #478
- Spanish accidente #790
- Swedish olycka an accident #1,166
- Tagalog pasumala #1,388
- Tamil விபத்து accident; calamity #603
- Turkish kaza #924
- Urdu حادثہ #1,482
- Vietnamese nạn accident, danger, calamity, disaster,… #543
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.