How to say “good” in 53 different 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.
- bueno/ˈbweno/ Spanish
- अच्छी/ət͡ʃt͡ʃʰiː/ Hindi
- καλό/kaˈlo/ Greek
- լավ/lɑv/ Armenian
- শুভ/ʃubʱo/ Bengali
- நல்ல/nɐllɐ/ Tamil
“good” in Spanish: bueno · French: bon · German: besser · Italian: bravo · Hindi: अच्छी · Greek: καλό
It is commonest in Malayalam, where നല്ല is the 25th most used word.
Good in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans goed/χut/ #49
- Albanian mirëmëngjes/miɾəməɲˈɟes/ good morning #935
- Arabic جيد/d͡ʒaj.jid/ of good quality, excellent, approvable #73
- Armenian լավ/lɑv/ good, fine, OK #48
- Basque ondo/ondo/ well, good, alright #20
- Bengali শুভ/ʃubʱo/ good, fair #247
- Bosnian dobar/dôbar/ #168
- Bulgarian добър[doˈbɤr] #193
- Catalan millor[miˈʎo] #141
- Chinese 不好/pu⁵¹ xɑʊ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/ bad; not good; poor #114
- Croatian dobar/dôbar/ #164
- Czech dobrý[ˈdobriː] #131
- Danish god[ˈɡ̊oˀð] #141
- Dutch beter/ˈbeːtər/ #181
- English goodness/ˈɡʊdnəs/ The state or characteristic of being good #1,891
- Esperanto bona/ˈbona/ #112
- Estonian hea/ˈheɑ̯/ #56
- Finnish hyvä/ˈhyʋæ/ #34
- French bon/bɔ̃/ #92
- Galician mellor/meˈɟoɾ/ #114
- Georgian გამარჯობა[ɡ̊ämäɾd͡ʒo̞bä] hello, how do you do, good afternoon #180
- German besser/ˈbɛsɐ/ #201
- Greek καλό/kaˈlo/ #134
- Hebrew טוב/tˤoːb/ well, good #22
- Hindi अच्छी/ət͡ʃt͡ʃʰiː/ good, nice, fine #199
- Hungarian legjobb[ˈlɛɡjobː] good -ra/-re, good at something -ban/-ben,… #218
- Icelandic góður[ˈkouːðʏr] #551
- Indonesian baik/ˈbaik/ good, nice, decent #44
- Italian bravo/ˈbra.vo/ good, well-behaved #507
- Korean 좋아[ˈt͡ɕo̞(ː)a̠] to be good; great; excellent #47
- Latvian labs/ˈlabs/ good following accepted moral rules, treating… #179
- Lithuanian geras/ˈɡʲæɾɐs/ #164
- Macedonian добар[ˈdɔbar] #136
- Malay baik/ˈbaek/ #48
- Malayalam നല്ല/n̪ɐllɐ/ #25
- Norwegian god/ɡuː/ #116
- Persian بهتر[beɦ.t̪ʰæɹ] #171
- Polish dobra/ˈdɔ.bra/ #89
- Portuguese legal/leˈɡaw/ cool, nice, good #1,758
- Romanian bună[ˈbunə] #78
- Russian отлично[ɐtˈlʲit͡ɕnə] very good, very well, excellently, perfectly #217
- Serbian dobar/dôbar/ #168
- Slovak dobrý/dɔbriː/ #126
- Slovenian dobro/dɔ̀ːbrɔ/ well, good #42
- Spanish bueno/ˈbweno/ #50
- Swedish bättre/ˈbɛtrɛ/ #183
- Tagalog suwerte/suˈeɾte/ luck; good luck #1,665
- Tamil நல்ல/nɐllɐ/ #38
- Telugu మంచి/maɲt͡ɕi/ #31
- Turkish günaydın/ɟy.najˈdɯn/ good morning #483
- Ukrainian добрий[ˈdɔbrei̯] good, benign, genial, gentle, kind, kindly #406
- Urdu درست/d̪ʊ.ɾʊst̪/ in good condition; unbroken, in working order #299
- Vietnamese tốt[tot̚˧˦] good, as in high-quality, well-made, well… #103
The speaker reads the word in the voice the LangX app uses for that language — synthesised, not a recording of a native speaker, so treat it as a guide. A row without a button has no reading we are free to use, or none we trust, yet. Voices for Bengali (google (bn_BD), CC BY-SA 4.0), Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), CC BY-SA 4.0), Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 4.0), Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0) and Vietnamese (vais1000 (vi_VN), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.