How to say “force” in 47 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 Chinese, where 警察 is the 76th most used word.
- Afrikaans forseer to force, to coerce #912
- Albanian forca #466
- Arabic أكره to force, to compel, to coerce #431
- Armenian ուժ #819
- Basque behartu to compel, urge, force #513
- Bengali বজায় in force, in position, intact #2,079
- Bosnian sila #2,049
- Bulgarian сила strength, force, forcefulness #666
- Catalan forces #1,091
- Chinese 警察 police; police force #76
- Croatian natjerati to make, compel, force, drive #1,745
- Danish tvang to force #2,008
- Dutch moment moment of force, moment #359
- English hard With much force or effort #318
- Esperanto forto strength, force #1,061
- Estonian sõjavägi army, defence force #1,810
- Finnish pakko obligation, force, necessity, compulsion,… #434
- Galician forza #440
- Georgian ძალა power, force, strength #399
- German gewalt strong or violent force #1,682
- Greek δύναμη power, force, strength, brawn #560
- Hindi बल strength, force #1,476
- Hungarian erő strength, force, power #1,981
- Icelandic fast strongly, with force #719
- Indonesian kapten an army or air force officer whose rank is… #436
- Italian forza #251
- Korean 억지로 by force; forcibly #1,404
- Latvian spēku #775
- Lithuanian jėga power, force #524
- Macedonian сила #513
- Malay polis The police, a civil force granted the legal… #200
- Malayalam ശക്തി power, force, strength #240
- Norwegian kraft a force #1,425
- Persian توش strength, force #396
- Portuguese força force; strength #460
- Russian заставить to compel, to force, to make #1,176
- Serbian sila #2,112
- Slovak prinútiť to force, to compel #1,431
- Slovenian sila #969
- Spanish fuerza #715
- Swedish tvungen to force #762
- Tagalog enerhiya energy; vigor; force #351
- Tamil கடற்படை navy, naval force #615
- Turkish gücü strength, force #867
- Ukrainian сила #951
- Urdu لشکر army, armed force, military #2,035
- Vietnamese lực #406
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.