How to say “dear” in 38 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.
- дорогой[dərɐˈɡoj] Russian
- प्रिय/pɾɪ.jᵊ/ Hindi
- αγαπητή/ˌaɣapiˈti/ Greek
- թանկ/tʰɑnk/ Armenian
- പ്രിയപ്പെട്ട/prijɐppeʈʈɐ/ Malayalam
- عزیز/ə.ziːz/ Urdu
“dear” in French: chère · Italian: cara · Portuguese: querida · Russian: дорогой · Hindi: प्रिय · Turkish: canım · Greek: αγαπητή
It is commonest in Basque, where maite is the 94th most used word.
Dear in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans geagte/xəˈɐxtə/ dear; a formal way to address somebody at the… #1,521
- Armenian թանկ/tʰɑnk/ #574
- Basque maite/mai̯te/ dear, beloved #94
- Bengali লক্ষ্মী/lokʰːi/ well-behaved, dear #1,912
- Bosnian dragi/ˈdraɡɪ/ #572
- Catalan estimada[əs.tiˈma.ðə] #614
- Chinese 親愛的/t͡ɕʰin⁵⁵ ˀaɪ̯⁵¹ d̥ə¹/ darling; dear #758
- Croatian dragi/ˈdraɡɪ/ #582
- Czech drahá[ˈdraɦaː] dear, expensive #1,013
- Esperanto kara/ˈkara/ #207
- Estonian armas/ˈɑrmɑs/ dear, beloved #455
- Finnish rakas/ˈrɑkɑs/ dear, beloved, cherished #955
- French chère/ʃɛʁ/ dear, beloved #1,210
- Georgian ძვირფასი[d͡zʷiɾpʰäsi] costive, dear, precious, valuable #895
- German liebe/ˈliːbə/ lovable; dear; darling; sweet; good-hearted;… #185
- Greek αγαπητή/ˌaɣapiˈti/ #1,266
- Hindi प्रिय/pɾɪ.jᵊ/ #397
- Icelandic ljúfur[ˈljuː(v)ʏr] dear, beloved #1,202
- Indonesian mahal/ˈmahal/ dear, expensive #1,187
- Italian cara/ˈka.ra/ dear, sweetheart #757
- Latvian mīļā/ˈmiːʎaː/ dear, cherished, beloved #313
- Macedonian леле[ˈlɛlɛ] oh, oh my, oh dear, alas #434
- Malayalam പ്രിയപ്പെട്ട/prijɐppeʈʈɐ/ dear, dearest #335
- Norwegian kjære/ˈçæːrə/ #320
- Persian عزیزم[ʔæ.ziː.zǽm] my darling, my dear #408
- Polish droga/ˈdrɔ.ɡa/ dear, expensive #810
- Portuguese querida/keˈɾi.dɐ/ #253
- Romanian dragă/ˈdra.ɡə/ dear, sweetie #435
- Russian дорогой[dərɐˈɡoj] dear, precious #649
- Serbian dragi/ˈdraɡɪ/ #544
- Slovak drahý/draɦiː/ #598
- Slovenian drag/dráːk/ #1,421
- Spanish nena/ˈnena/ babe, dear #1,183
- Swedish raring/ˈrɑːrɪŋ/ dear; darling #904
- Turkish canım/d͡ʒaˈnɯm/ dear, darling #425
- Ukrainian люба[ˈlʲubɐ] dear, darling, sweetheart, love #601
- Urdu عزیز/ə.ziːz/ dear, loved #597
- Vietnamese đắt[ʔɗat̚˧˦] expensive; dear; costly #1,788
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), Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), 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.