How to say “freedom” in 40 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 Galician, where liberdade is the 426th most used word.
- Afrikaans vryheid #502
- Albanian lirinë #1,444
- Arabic حرية freedom, liberty #2,248
- Basque askatasuna freedom, liberty #630
- Bengali মুক্তি freedom; liberation, independence #667
- Bosnian slobodu #1,569
- Catalan llibertat freedom, liberty #911
- Croatian slobodu #1,626
- Danish frihed #1,416
- Dutch vrijheid #1,436
- Esperanto libereco freedom, liberty #1,012
- Estonian vabadus #1,739
- French liberté liberty, freedom. 1688, Guy Miège, The Great… #1,148
- Galician liberdade liberty; freedom #426
- German freiheit #1,494
- Greek ελευθερία freedom, liberty #1,407
- Hebrew חופש #1,293
- Icelandic frelsi freedom, liberty #845
- Indonesian kebebasan freedom, freehood #1,495
- Italian libertà freedom; liberty #1,976
- Korean 자유 freedom, liberty #713
- Latvian brīvību freedom, liberty subordination, dependence #1,513
- Lithuanian laisvė #1,472
- Macedonian слобода freedom, liberty #906
- Malay kebebasan freedom; liberty #1,142
- Norwegian frihet freedom, liberty #1,507
- Persian آزادی #1,625
- Polish wolności freedom, liberty #2,041
- Portuguese liberdade liberty, freedom #1,042
- Romanian libertate liberty, freedom #1,753
- Serbian slobodu #1,576
- Slovak slobodu #1,004
- Slovenian svoboda #1,050
- Spanish libertad liberty, freedom #950
- Swedish frihet freedom, liberty #1,621
- Tagalog kalayaan freedom; liberty #1,852
- Tamil சுதந்திரம் independence, freedom #971
- Turkish özgürlük freedom, liberty #1,719
- Ukrainian свобода freedom, liberty #2,207
- Urdu آزادی freedom, independence #620
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.