How to say “captain” in 39 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 Catalan, where capità is the 326th most used word.
- Afrikaans kaptein captain, both in the land and naval senses of… #426
- Albanian kapiten captain, a third grade military rank, officer… #474
- Bengali সর্দার #1,882
- Bosnian kapetan #813
- Bulgarian капитан #707
- Catalan capità #326
- Chinese 上校 colonel; captain #450
- Croatian kapetan #837
- Czech kapitán #1,007
- Danish kaptajn #531
- Dutch kapitein #622
- Esperanto kapitano #393
- Estonian kapten #429
- Finnish kapteeni #482
- French capitaine captain, leader #475
- Galician capitán #579
- German kapitän #1,959
- Greek λοχαγέ the rank of captain in the British and US… #1,878
- Hindi कप्तान captain, leader, head #655
- Hungarian kapitány #474
- Icelandic kapteinn #1,106
- Italian capitano #565
- Korean 대위 #1,053
- Latvian kapteinis #935
- Macedonian капетан captain, commander, master, skipper #834
- Malayalam തലവൻ chief; head; captain #1,916
- Norwegian kaptein captain; a military officer rank between… #443
- Polish kapitanie #753
- Portuguese capitão #453
- Romanian căpitanul #1,061
- Russian капитан captain, commander, master, skipper, team… #522
- Serbian kapetan #822
- Slovenian stotnik #664
- Spanish capitán #476
- Swedish kapten a captain #566
- Tagalog kapitan #1,156
- Turkish kaptan #572
- Ukrainian капітан #862
- Urdu کپتان #731
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.