How to say “difficult” in 38 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 Bosnian, where sranje is the 213th most used word.
- Afrikaans lastig difficult, tough #1,222
- Albanian vështirë #255
- Arabic صعب to be hard, difficult #393
- Basque zail #1,304
- Bengali কঠিন hard, difficult #287
- Bosnian sranje A very difficult situation, big trouble #213
- Bulgarian труден difficult, hard #1,897
- Catalan difícil #503
- Chinese 好不容易 very difficult #2,035
- Croatian sranje A very difficult situation, big trouble #256
- Danish svært difficult, hard, stiff, tough #395
- Dutch lastig tough, difficult #1,001
- English complicated Difficult or convoluted #1,939
- Finnish vaikea difficult, hard #596
- French difficile #557
- Galician difícil #407
- Georgian რთული complicated, complex, difficult, arduous,… #903
- German schwierig difficult, hard, challenging, tough #1,446
- Greek δύσκολο difficult, hard, tough, arduous #429
- Hebrew מבלבל Confusing: difficult to understand #2,307
- Hindi मुश्किल difficult, hard #394
- Hungarian nehéz #276
- Indonesian sulit hard, difficult #323
- Italian difficile difficult, hard #453
- Latvian grūti difficult, tough, difficultly, with… #353
- Malay sukar #403
- Norwegian vanskelig #373
- Persian مشکل #214
- Polish trudne #1,066
- Portuguese difícil difficult, hard, unlikely #368
- Romanian dificil #1,181
- Serbian sranje A very difficult situation, big trouble #259
- Spanish difícil difficult, hard, tough, challenging, rough,… #403
- Swedish jobbigt onerous, arduous, difficult, tiring,… #1,626
- Tagalog mahirap difficult; tough #368
- Turkish zor hard, difficult #230
- Urdu مشکل #339
- Vietnamese khó difficult; tough #354
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.