How to say “allow” in 37 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 let is the 75th most used word.
- Arabic سمح to allow, to permit someone something / أَن… #1,875
- Armenian թույլատրել to permit, authorize, allow #1,084
- Basque laga to let, to allow #1,836
- Bosnian dozvoliti to allow, permit, let #1,044
- Bulgarian позволя to let, to allow, to permit #860
- Catalan permetre to allow; to permit #1,046
- Croatian dopustiti to allow, permit, let #751
- Czech dovolit to allow, to permit #1,063
- Danish tillader to allow, permit #2,264
- English let To allow to, not to prevent #75
- Esperanto permesu to let, permit, allow #415
- Estonian lase to let, to allow, to permit #169
- Finnish suokaa to give, allow, permit, grant, let, afford #1,772
- French permis to permit, to allow #1,401
- Galician permitir to permit, to allow #1,683
- German lassen to allow; to permit; to let #161
- Greek αφήσω to leave, allow, let, let go, let go of,… #487
- Hebrew הרשה to allow #1,779
- Hungarian hagyd to let, to allow #323
- Icelandic leyfa to allow, to permit, to give permission for #612
- Indonesian izinkan to allow #1,907
- Italian permesso to allow, to let, to permit, to authorize, to… #781
- Latvian ļauj to allow #283
- Lithuanian leisti let, allow, permit, authorize #441
- Macedonian дозволува to allow, permit #2,275
- Malay benarkan to allow; to permit; to authorise #698
- Malayalam അനുവദിക്കുക to allow #2,124
- Persian گذاشتم to let, to permit, to allow #599
- Polish pozwól to allow #467
- Portuguese permitir to permit, to allow, to let #2,326
- Romanian permite to permit, allow #918
- Russian позволить to allow, to permit #971
- Serbian dozvoliti to allow, permit, let #972
- Spanish permite to allow, permit #1,594
- Swedish tillåter to allow, to permit #2,261
- Tamil அனுமதிக்க to allow, permit #298
- Ukrainian дозволити to allow, to permit, to let #1,390
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.