How to say “father” in 53 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 Georgian, where მამა is the 17th most used word.
- Afrikaans pa dad, father #145
- Albanian babi dad, father #182
- Arabic والد #756
- Armenian հայր #134
- Basque aita #62
- Bengali বাবা father, daddy, papa #76
- Bosnian otac #231
- Bulgarian баща #133
- Catalan pare #107
- Chinese 父母 parents; mother and father; mum and dad #185
- Croatian otac #242
- Czech otec #325
- Danish far father, dad #105
- Dutch vader father, male parent #155
- English dad A father, a male parent #217
- Esperanto patro #118
- Estonian isa #89
- Finnish isä #132
- French père #144
- Galician pai #139
- Georgian მამა #17
- German vater #176
- Greek μπαμπά dad, father #236
- Hebrew אבא #104
- Hindi पिता #144
- Hungarian apa #195
- Icelandic faðir #950
- Indonesian ayah #111
- Italian padre #158
- Korean 아버지 #213
- Latvian tēvs #194
- Lithuanian tėvas #198
- Macedonian татко #105
- Malay ayah A father #59
- Malayalam അച്ഛൻ #223
- Norwegian faren #241
- Persian پدر #151
- Polish ojciec #268
- Portuguese pai #105
- Romanian tatăl #229
- Russian отец #191
- Serbian otac #222
- Slovak otec #117
- Slovenian oče #102
- Spanish padre #147
- Swedish pappa dad, father #130
- Tagalog tatay #252
- Tamil என்னை my father #21
- Telugu తండ్రి #101
- Turkish baba #153
- Ukrainian батько #280
- Urdu والد #127
- Vietnamese bố I/me, your father #116
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.