How to say “courage” in 35 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 Arabic, where بأس is the 149th most used word.
- Arabic بأس courage, boldness #149
- Bengali সাহস courage, fortitude #372
- Bosnian hrabrost #2,144
- Bulgarian кураж courage, fortitude #2,489
- Croatian hrabrost #2,199
- Dutch durf valor/valour, courage, daring, braveness #1,521
- English dare To have enough courage #971
- Esperanto kuraĝon courage, bravery, boldness #1,594
- French couilles balls; courage, bravery #2,163
- Galician coraxe courage, boldness, audacity #2,099
- German mut courage; bravery #1,640
- Greek θάρρος courage, bravery, valour, valor #2,072
- Hebrew ביצים testicles; having balls, courage, cojones #1,082
- Hindi हिम्मत courage, valour #826
- Icelandic hugrekki #1,137
- Indonesian keberanian #1,382
- Italian coraggio courage, bravery, valour/valor #969
- Latvian drosmi courage, bravery #2,211
- Lithuanian drįsti to dare, to have the courage #1,457
- Macedonian храброст bravery, courage, valour #939
- Malay keberanian courage, bravery #948
- Malayalam ധൈര്യം #392
- Persian شجاعت bravery, courage #1,599
- Portuguese coragem courage; boldness; guts #1,380
- Romanian curaj courage, guts, bravery #1,487
- Serbian hrabrost #2,057
- Slovak odvaha #2,105
- Slovenian pogum #771
- Swedish vågar to dare, to have enough courage #1,264
- Tagalog katapangan bravery; courage #1,466
- Tamil தைரியம் courage, bravery #885
- Telugu పిరికి a coward, person who lacks courage #1,189
- Turkish cesaret #1,312
- Urdu ہمت courage, valour #454
- Vietnamese dũng courage; bravery #1,249
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.