How to say “fear” in 49 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 French, where peur is the 221st most used word.
- Afrikaans vrees fear, apprehension #496
- Albanian frikë #269
- Arabic خوف #2,033
- Armenian ահ fear, fright; dread, terror; anxiety #276
- Basque beldur #234
- Bengali ভয় fear, dread, fright, awe, consternation,… #671
- Bosnian strah fear, dread #1,085
- Bulgarian страх fear, fright, scare #503
- Catalan por #304
- Croatian strah fear, dread #1,009
- Czech strach #578
- Danish frygt fear, fright #1,154
- Dutch angst fear, fright, anxiety #1,080
- English afraid Impressed with fear or apprehension; in fear #417
- Esperanto timas to fear #229
- Estonian kardan to be afraid, to fear #534
- Finnish pelkää to fear, dread, be afraid of #845
- French peur #221
- Galician medo #237
- Georgian ზარი terror, fear; consternation #1,355
- German angst fear; fright; anxiety #263
- Greek φοβάμαι to fear, dread, be afraid, be frightened #515
- Hebrew יראה #909
- Hindi डर fear, fright, dread #291
- Hungarian félek to fear, to be afraid of something #724
- Icelandic óttast to fear, be afraid #1,947
- Indonesian ketakutan #729
- Italian paura #330
- Korean 공포 fear, terror, dread, fright, horror, panic #1,680
- Latvian bailes #1,048
- Lithuanian baimė #1,217
- Macedonian страв #631
- Malayalam പേടി #445
- Norwegian frykt a fear #1,322
- Persian ترس #647
- Polish boję to fear, to be afraid #968
- Portuguese medo #326
- Romanian frică #631
- Russian бояться to fear, to be afraid #2,375
- Serbian strah fear, dread #1,044
- Slovak strach #404
- Slovenian strah #291
- Spanish miedo #355
- Swedish rädsla #1,767
- Tamil பயம் fear, dread, alarm #481
- Turkish korkarım to fear #935
- Ukrainian жах horror, terror, fear, nightmare #1,948
- Urdu ڈر fear, dread #391
- Vietnamese sợ to fear; to be afraid #287
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.