How to say “fear” in 49 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.
- miedo/ˈmjedo/ Spanish
- бояться[bɐˈjat͡sːə] Russian
- خوف/xawf/ Arabic
- 공포[ˈko̞(ː)ŋpʰo̞] Korean
- डर/ɖəɾ/ Hindi
- φοβάμαι/foˈva.me/ Greek
“fear” in Spanish: miedo · French: peur · German: angst · Italian: paura · Portuguese: medo · Korean: 공포 · Russian: бояться · Arabic: خوف
It is commonest in French, where peur is the 221st most used word.
Fear in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans vrees/frɪəs/ fear, apprehension #496
- Albanian frikë/ˈfɾikə/ #269
- Arabic خوف/xawf/ #2,033
- Armenian ահ/ɑh/ fear, fright; dread, terror; anxiety #276
- Basque beldur/beldur/ #234
- Bengali ভয়/bʱɔe̯/ fear, dread, fright, awe, consternation,… #671
- Bosnian strah/strâːx/ fear, dread #1,085
- Bulgarian страх[strax] fear, fright, scare #503
- Catalan por[ˈpɔr] #304
- Croatian strah/strâːx/ fear, dread #1,009
- Czech strach[ˈstrax] #578
- Danish frygt/frøkt/ fear, fright #1,154
- Dutch angst/ɑŋst/ fear, fright, anxiety #1,080
- English afraid/əˈfɹeɪd/ Impressed with fear or apprehension; in fear #417
- Esperanto timas/ˈtimas/ to fear #229
- Estonian kardan/ˈkɑrd̥ɑn/ to be afraid, to fear #534
- Finnish pelkää/ˈpelkæː/ to fear, dread, be afraid of #845
- French peur/pœʁ/ #221
- Galician medo/ˈmedo/ #237
- Georgian ზარი[zäɾi] terror, fear; consternation #1,355
- German angst/aŋst/ fear; fright; anxiety #263
- Greek φοβάμαι/foˈva.me/ to fear, dread, be afraid, be frightened #515
- Hebrew יראה/jirˈʔaː/ #909
- Hindi डर/ɖəɾ/ fear, fright, dread #291
- Hungarian félek[ˈfeːlɛk] to fear, to be afraid of something #724
- Icelandic óttast[ˈouhtast] to fear, be afraid #1,947
- Indonesian ketakutan/kətaˈkutan/ #729
- Italian paura/paˈu.ra/ #330
- Korean 공포[ˈko̞(ː)ŋpʰo̞] fear, terror, dread, fright, horror, panic #1,680
- Latvian bailes[bâjlɛs] #1,048
- Lithuanian baimė[¹ˈbɑˑɪmʲeː] #1,217
- Macedonian страв[straf] #631
- Malayalam പേടി/peːɖi/ #445
- Norwegian frykt/ˈfrʏkt/ a fear #1,322
- Persian ترس[t̪ʰǽɹs] #647
- Polish boję/ˈbɔ.jɛ/ to fear, to be afraid #968
- Portuguese medo/ˈme.du/ #326
- Romanian frică/ˈfrikə/ #631
- Russian бояться[bɐˈjat͡sːə] to fear, to be afraid #2,375
- Serbian strah/strâːx/ fear, dread #1,044
- Slovak strach/strax/ #404
- Slovenian strah/stráːx/ #291
- Spanish miedo/ˈmjedo/ #355
- Swedish rädsla/ˈrɛdsla/ #1,767
- Tamil பயம்/bɐjɐm/ fear, dread, alarm #481
- Turkish korkarım/koɾkaˈɾɯm/ to fear #935
- Ukrainian жах[ʒax] horror, terror, fear, nightmare #1,948
- Urdu ڈر/ɖəɾ/ fear, dread #391
- Vietnamese sợ[səː˧˨ʔ] to fear; to be afraid #287
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.