How to say “bear” in 46 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 Telugu, where ఎలుగుబంటి is the 316th most used word.
- Afrikaans beer #1,069
- Albanian ari #917
- Arabic تذكر to remember, to bear in mind #376
- Armenian ծնել to give birth, to bear #535
- Basque hartz #750
- Bengali ভালুক #1,613
- Bosnian podnijeti to bear, endure, withstand #1,683
- Bulgarian мечка #2,439
- Chinese 忍受 to bear; to endure; to tolerate #760
- Croatian podnijeti to bear, endure, withstand #1,160
- Danish født to bear, give birth #780
- Dutch beer a bear, any member of the family Ursidae #2,168
- English afford To incur, stand, or bear without serious… #1,628
- Esperanto suferas to endure, to bear, to put up with, to… #1,218
- Estonian karu #1,365
- Finnish kannattaa to support, bear up, hold up, prop up, carry #1,243
- French viré to bear, veer #1,962
- Galician portas to carry, bear #798
- German tragen to carry, to bear #808
- Greek φέρω to bear, carry #573
- Hebrew דוב #1,804
- Hindi भालू #1,512
- Hungarian bocs bear cub #520
- Icelandic bera to carry, to bear #522
- Indonesian tanggung to bear #1,283
- Korean 곰 #1,828
- Latvian lācis #1,796
- Lithuanian išlaikyti to be able to bear a load #1,094
- Macedonian носи to carry, bear #431
- Malay tahan to endure, to bear, to withstand, to resist #490
- Malayalam കരടി #1,071
- Norwegian bar to bear; endure #1,211
- Persian برنده to bear; to carry; to take #470
- Polish wykorzystać to use, to utilise, to bring to bear #2,150
- Portuguese urso #2,318
- Romanian poartă to carry, bear #1,030
- Russian носить to carry, to bear #2,162
- Serbian rodila to bear #2,212
- Slovak medveď #1,317
- Slovenian medved #1,067
- Spanish soportar to bear, to endure, to withstand, put up… #2,399
- Tagalog oso #956
- Tamil கரடி #822
- Telugu ఎలుగుబంటి #316
- Urdu ریچھ #1,633
- Vietnamese gấu #1,345
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.