How to say “ghost” in 37 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 Slovenian, where duh is the 477th most used word.
- Afrikaans spook ghost, phantom #969
- Albanian fantazmë #1,691
- Arabic روح spirit, ghost #831
- Armenian ուրու #1,244
- Basque mamu #953
- Bengali ভূত ghost, apparition, spirit #1,211
- Bosnian duh ghost, spirit #993
- Bulgarian дух #1,165
- Catalan fantasma ghost, phantom #1,764
- Chinese 鬼魂 ghost; wraith #1,152
- Croatian duh ghost, spirit #975
- Danish spøgelse #2,209
- Dutch geest ghost, spirit, immaterial being #838
- French fantôme #1,758
- Georgian სული spirit, ghost #728
- Greek φάντασμα ghost, phantasm, phantom, spectre, specter #1,418
- Hebrew רפאים #1,516
- Hindi भूत ghost, spirit #1,009
- Icelandic draugur #1,931
- Indonesian hantu #686
- Italian fantasma ghost, spectre #1,786
- Korean 유령 apparition; ghost #1,164
- Lithuanian vaiduoklis ghost, apparition #1,450
- Macedonian дух #657
- Malay puntianak A female vampiric ghost, said to be the… #1,414
- Malayalam പ്രേതം #854
- Polish ducha #2,040
- Portuguese fantasma #1,716
- Romanian spiritul spirit, ghost #1,810
- Serbian duh ghost, spirit #911
- Slovenian duh #477
- Spanish fantasma ghost, phantom, wraith #1,787
- Tagalog multo ghost; specter #2,482
- Tamil பேய் ghost, demon, fiend #595
- Turkish hayalet #1,185
- Ukrainian привид ghost, spirit, phantom, spectre, apparition,… #2,432
- Vietnamese ma #538
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.