How to say “explain” in 40 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 Hindi, where बताओ is the 227th most used word.
- Afrikaans verklaar to explain, to declare #688
- Albanian shpjegoj to explain #1,157
- Arabic شرح to explain #2,201
- Armenian բացատրել to explain #969
- Basque azaldu to explain #431
- Bengali বোঝানো to explain #1,309
- Bosnian objasniti to explain #1,124
- Catalan explicar to explain #635
- Chinese 解釋 to explain; to elucidate #1,496
- Croatian objasniti to explain #863
- Czech vysvětlit to explain #1,070
- Danish forklare to explain #714
- Dutch uitleggen to explain #1,074
- English details To explain in detail #1,806
- Esperanto klarigi to explain #1,091
- Estonian selgitama to explain, clear, clarify #2,012
- Finnish selittää to explain #849
- French expliquer to explain #836
- Galician explicar to explain #1,505
- German erklären to explain, to make clear #730
- Greek εξηγήσω to clarify, explain, illustrate #1,033
- Hindi बताओ to tell, explain #227
- Indonesian menjelaskan to explain #780
- Italian spiegare to explain, elucidate, expound, show,… #1,731
- Lithuanian aiškinti to explain, clarify #2,344
- Macedonian објасни to explain, explicate #1,148
- Malay jelaskan To explain #741
- Norwegian forklare to explain #712
- Polish wyjaśnić to explain, to clarify #1,326
- Portuguese explicar to explain #980
- Romanian explica to explain #1,342
- Russian объяснить to explain #1,041
- Serbian objasniti to explain #1,331
- Spanish explicar to explain #1,909
- Swedish förklara to explain #629
- Tagalog magpaliwanag to explain oneself; to clarify #1,767
- Tamil விளக்கு to explain, make clear, elucidate #1,030
- Turkish açıklama to explain #1,613
- Ukrainian пояснити to explain, to explicate #1,197
- Vietnamese giảng to explain; to explicate; to lecture #1,870
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.