How to say “bear” in 46 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.
- soportar/sopoɾˈtaɾ/ Spanish
- 忍受/ɻən²¹⁴⁻²¹ ʂoʊ̯⁵¹/ Chinese
- 곰[ko̞(ː)m] Korean
- भालू/bʱɑː.luː/ Hindi
- φέρω/ˈfe.ɾo/ Greek
- דוב/dob/ Hebrew
“bear” in Spanish: soportar · French: viré · Portuguese: urso · Chinese: 忍受 · Korean: 곰 · Hindi: भालू · Greek: φέρω
It is commonest in Telugu, where ఎలుగుబంటి is the 316th most used word.
Bear in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans beer/bɪər/ #1,069
- Albanian ari/aˈɾi/ #917
- Arabic تذكر/ta.ðak.ka.ra/ to remember, to bear in mind #376
- Armenian ծնել/t͡səˈnel/ to give birth, to bear #535
- Basque hartz/hart͡s̻/ #750
- Bengali ভালুক/bʱaluk/ #1,613
- Bosnian podnijeti/pǒdnijeːti/ to bear, endure, withstand #1,683
- Bulgarian мечка[ˈmɛt͡ʃkɐ] #2,439
- Chinese 忍受/ɻən²¹⁴⁻²¹ ʂoʊ̯⁵¹/ to bear; to endure; to tolerate #760
- Croatian podnijeti/pǒdnijeːti/ to bear, endure, withstand #1,160
- Danish født[ˈføˀd̥] to bear, give birth #780
- Dutch beer/beːr/ a bear, any member of the family Ursidae #2,168
- English afford/əˈfoɹd/ To incur, stand, or bear without serious… #1,628
- Esperanto suferas/suˈferas/ to endure, to bear, to put up with, to… #1,218
- Estonian karu/ˈkɑru/ #1,365
- Finnish kannattaa/ˈkɑnːɑtːɑːˣ/ to support, bear up, hold up, prop up, carry #1,243
- French viré/viˈʁe/ to bear, veer #1,962
- Galician portas/ˈpoɾtas/ to carry, bear #798
- German tragen/ˈtʁaːɡn̩/ to carry, to bear #808
- Greek φέρω/ˈfe.ɾo/ to bear, carry #573
- Hebrew דוב/dob/ #1,804
- Hindi भालू/bʱɑː.luː/ #1,512
- Hungarian bocs[ˈbot͡ʃ] bear cub #520
- Icelandic bera[ˈpɛːra] to carry, to bear #522
- Indonesian tanggung/ˈtaŋɡuŋ/ to bear #1,283
- Korean 곰[ko̞(ː)m] #1,828
- Latvian lācis[lâːt͡sis] #1,796
- Lithuanian išlaikyti[ɪʃlɐɪ¹ˈkʲiːtʲɪ] to be able to bear a load #1,094
- Macedonian носи[ˈnɔsi] to carry, bear #431
- Malay tahan/ˈtahan/ to endure, to bear, to withstand, to resist #490
- Malayalam കരടി/kɐɾɐɖi/ #1,071
- Norwegian bar/ˈbɑːr/ to bear; endure #1,211
- Persian برنده[bæ.ɹæn̪.d̪é] to bear; to carry; to take #470
- Polish wykorzystać/vɘ.kɔˈʐɘ.stat͡ɕ/ to use, to utilise, to bring to bear #2,150
- Portuguese urso/ˈuʁ.su/ #2,318
- Romanian poartă/ˈpo̯ar.tə/ to carry, bear #1,030
- Russian носить[nɐˈsʲitʲ] to carry, to bear #2,162
- Serbian rodila/ˈrodɪlɐ/ to bear #2,212
- Slovak medveď/medvec/ #1,317
- Slovenian medved/mɛ̀ːdʋɛt/ #1,067
- Spanish soportar/sopoɾˈtaɾ/ to bear, to endure, to withstand, put up… #2,399
- Tagalog oso/ˈʔoso/ #956
- Tamil கரடி/kɐɾɐɖiː/ #822
- Telugu ఎలుగుబంటి/eluɡubaɳʈi/ #316
- Urdu ریچھ/ɾiːt͡ʃʰ/ #1,633
- Vietnamese gấu[ɣəw˧˦] #1,345
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), 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.