How to say “bad” in 52 different 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.
- malo/ˈmalo/ Spanish
- 不好/pu⁵¹ xɑʊ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/ Chinese
- बुरा/bʊ.ɾɑː/ Hindi
- κακό/kaˈko/ Greek
- ცუდი[t͡sʰudi] Georgian
- খারাপ/kʰaɾap/ Bengali
“bad” in Spanish: malo · French: mauvais · German: schlechte · Portuguese: mau · Chinese: 不好 · Hindi: बुरा · Turkish: kötü · Greek: κακό
It is commonest in Turkish, where kötü is the 107th most used word.
Bad in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans sleg/slɛχ ~ slæχ/ #257
- Albanian keqe/kɛcɕɛ/ bad, evil, wicked, naughty #268
- Arabic سيئة/sajjiʔa/ bad deed, misdeed #273
- Armenian չարիք/t͡ʃʰɑˈɾikʰ/ evil, harm, something bad #456
- Basque gaizki/ɡai̯s̻ki/ bad, badly #193
- Bengali খারাপ/kʰaɾap/ bad; gone bad; evil #136
- Bosnian loše/ˈloʃɛ/ bad, malicious #301
- Bulgarian лош[ɫɔʃ] bad, foul, inferior #763
- Catalan dolent[duˈlen] #696
- Chinese 不好/pu⁵¹ xɑʊ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/ bad; not good; poor #114
- Croatian loše/ˈloʃɛ/ bad, malicious #313
- Czech špatné[ˈʃpatnɛː] #652
- Danish værre/vɛrə/ worse, more bad, more badly #564
- Dutch slecht/slɛxt/ #374
- English worst/wɜɹst/ In a bad manner #1,108
- Esperanto malbona/malˈbona/ #354
- Estonian halb/hɑlb̥/ #443
- Finnish huono/ˈhuo̯no/ bad, poor #589
- French mauvais/mo.vɛ/ #513
- Galician malo/ˈmalo/ #555
- Georgian ცუდი[t͡sʰudi] #231
- German schlechte/ˈʃlɛçtə/ bad, evil, wicked #1,237
- Greek κακό/kaˈko/ bad, evil, ill, wicked #367
- Hebrew רע/raʕ/ An evil, trouble; something bad #248
- Hindi बुरा/bʊ.ɾɑː/ #296
- Hungarian rossz[ˈrosː] bad, unpleasant, unfavorable, foul #164
- Icelandic slæmur[ˈstlaiːmʏr] #982
- Indonesian buruk/ˈburuʔ/ #208
- Italian brutto/ˈbrut.to/ ugly, bad, nasty #868
- Latvian slikti/ˈslikti/ bad, badly; adverbial form of slikts #378
- Lithuanian bloga[bloːˈɡɐ] bad, wrong #535
- Macedonian лош[ɫɔʃ] bad, poor #522
- Malay jahat/ˈd͡ʒahat/ bad, evil #440
- Malayalam മോശം/moːʃɐm/ #214
- Norwegian verre[ˈʋɛ̝̂ɾ.ɾɛ̝] #582
- Persian بدتر[bæd̪.t̪ʰæɹ] bad; not good #612
- Polish nieźle/ˈɲɛ.ʑlɛ/ not bad, well #623
- Portuguese mau/ˈmaw/ #440
- Romanian rea[re̯a] #1,003
- Russian ничего[nʲit͡ɕaˈɣo] so-so, not bad, fair #74
- Serbian loše/ˈloʃɛ/ bad, malicious #280
- Slovak zle/zʎe/ bad, badly #325
- Slovenian slab/sláp/ #394
- Spanish malo/ˈmalo/ #475
- Swedish dåligt/ˈdoːlɪkt/ bad, badly #705
- Tagalog masama/masaˈmaʔ/ evil; bad #322
- Tamil கெட்ட/kɛʈːɐ/ bad, harmful #351
- Telugu కు/ku/ in composition signifies bad, vile #83
- Turkish kötü/cøˈty/ #107
- Ukrainian погано[pɔˈɦanɔ] #473
- Urdu برا/bʊ.ɾɑː/ #295
- Vietnamese tệ[te˧˨ʔ] #408
The speaker reads the word in the voice the LangX app uses for that language — synthesised, not a recording of a native speaker, so treat it as a guide. A row without a button has no reading we are free to use, or none we trust, yet. Voices for Bengali (google (bn_BD), CC BY-SA 4.0), Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), CC BY-SA 4.0), Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 4.0), Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0) and Vietnamese (vais1000 (vi_VN), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.