How to say “fool” in 34 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 Arabic, where لها is the 104th most used word.
- Albanian budalla fool, crazy person #423
- Arabic لها to divert oneself, to fool around, to putz… #104
- Bengali বেকুব fool; dumb; idiot; dunce #1,089
- Bosnian budala fool, idiot, simpleton #1,131
- Bulgarian глупак fool, simpleton, bonehead #756
- Chinese 笨蛋 fool; idiot; silly #333
- Croatian budala fool, idiot, simpleton #1,164
- Czech blázen #830
- Danish idiot an idiot, imbecile, fool #616
- English trick Something designed to fool, dupe, outsmart,… #1,519
- Estonian jobu jerk, fool, loser #916
- German trottel idiot, fool, boob, etc #2,095
- Hebrew טיפש #600
- Hindi गधा a fool; ass #1,297
- Icelandic fífl fool, idiot, buffoon #641
- Italian farla to make a fool of #1,181
- Korean 바보 fool, moron, idiot #419
- Latvian muļķi fool, stupid man #1,178
- Lithuanian kvailys fool, idiot #577
- Macedonian будала #841
- Malayalam വിഡ്ഢി fool, idiot #408
- Norwegian idiot an idiot, imbecile, fool #645
- Persian احمق idiot, fool, dolt #287
- Russian дурак fool, simpleton, idiot #1,962
- Serbian budala fool, idiot, simpleton #1,000
- Slovak blázon #489
- Slovenian bedak #422
- Spanish tonta a fool, a stupid person #1,824
- Swedish lura to trick, to fool, to deceive, to lure #1,635
- Tagalog bobo fool; idiot; simpleton; dunce #684
- Tamil முட்டாள் fool, stupid, idiot, simpleton, dunce #186
- Turkish ahmak fool, stupid, silly #2,251
- Ukrainian дурень fool, idiot, imbecile #1,580
- Vietnamese bịp to trick, to fool #2,405
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.