How to say “answer” in 50 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 Swedish, where nej is the 38th most used word.
- Afrikaans antwoord #317
- Albanian përgjigje #763
- Arabic إجابة reply, response, answer #1,551
- Armenian պատասխան answer, reply, response #392
- Bengali জবাব answer; reply #722
- Bosnian odgovor #675
- Bulgarian отговор answer, reply #955
- Catalan resposta answer, response #731
- Chinese 回答 to reply; to answer; to respond #187
- Croatian odgovor #658
- Czech odpověď #881
- Danish svar to answer, reply, respond #575
- Dutch antwoord to answer, reply #617
- English yes Answer to a question presuming one answer… #77
- Esperanto respondu to reply, answer, respond #796
- Estonian vastus answer, response #908
- Finnish vastata to answer, to reply; to respond #1,351
- French réponse response, answer, reply #851
- Galician resposta answer, response #761
- Georgian პასუხი #645
- German antwort #921
- Greek απάντηση answer, response #838
- Hebrew תשובה answer, response #1,052
- Hindi जवाब answer, reply, response #435
- Hungarian választ answer, reply #1,277
- Icelandic svara answer, reply #488
- Indonesian jawab to answer #479
- Italian rispondere to answer, to reply, to respond #1,193
- Korean 대답 answer; response #1,239
- Latvian atbildi #752
- Lithuanian atsakymas #761
- Macedonian одговори to answer, reply #618
- Malay jawab an answer or reply #588
- Malayalam ഉത്തരം #201
- Norwegian svar to reply, answer #586
- Persian جواب answer, reply #191
- Polish odpowiedź answer, response, reply #1,094
- Portuguese resposta answer, response #779
- Romanian răspunde to respond, reply, answer #853
- Russian решение decision, solution, answer #723
- Serbian odgovor #667
- Slovak odpoveď #472
- Slovenian odgovor #367
- Spanish respuesta reply, response, answer #817
- Swedish nej no; a negative answer #38
- Tamil பதில் answer, reply #190
- Turkish cevap response, reply, answer #364
- Ukrainian відповідь answer, reply, response #866
- Urdu جواب answer, reply, response #241
- Vietnamese cãi to answer back; to talk back; to argue #1,187
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.