How to say “believe” in 44 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 Chinese, where 相信 is the 37th most used word.
- Afrikaans glo to believe #156
- Albanian besoj to believe #167
- Arabic اعتقد to believe in; to have faith in #153
- Bosnian vjerujem to believe, have faith in #451
- Bulgarian вярвам to believe #397
- Catalan cuida to think, to believe #1,997
- Chinese 相信 to believe; to trust; to have faith #37
- Croatian vjerujem to believe, have faith in #351
- Czech věřit to believe #550
- Danish tror to believe #65
- Dutch geloof to believe, to hold a belief #302
- English expect To predict or believe that something will… #785
- Esperanto kredas to believe #194
- Estonian arvan to believe, to assume, to think #120
- Finnish usko to believe, have faith #228
- French crois to believe #145
- Galician creo to believe #144
- Georgian მგონია to believe #398
- German glaube to believe something #178
- Greek πιστεύω to believe #225
- Hebrew האמין to believe #2,191
- Hungarian hiszem to believe #77
- Icelandic trúa to believe #451
- Indonesian percaya to believe, to have trust #161
- Italian credo to believe #134
- Latvian tici to believe #591
- Lithuanian tikėti to believe, to trust #947
- Macedonian веруваш to believe, trust #387
- Malayalam വിശ്വസിക്കുക to believe #1,474
- Norwegian tror to think, believe #67
- Polish wierzę to believe #508
- Portuguese acredito to believe #387
- Romanian cred to believe #56
- Russian верить to believe, to trust #1,170
- Serbian vjerujem to believe, have faith in #875
- Slovenian verjeti to believe #238
- Spanish creo to believe #79
- Swedish tror to believe, to think #69
- Tagalog maniwala to believe; to trust #578
- Tamil நம்பு to trust, believe #777
- Turkish inan to believe, have faith #1,614
- Ukrainian повірити to believe #839
- Urdu ماننا to believe #1,687
- Vietnamese tin to believe; to trust; to have faith #104
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.