How to say “great” in 43 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.
- gran/ˈɡɾan/ Spanish
- здорово[ˈzdorəvə] Russian
- رائع/raː.ʔiʕ/ Arabic
- महान/mə.ɦɑːn/ Hindi
- נהדר/neheˈdaʁ/ Hebrew
- పెద్ద/ped̪ːa/ Telugu
“great” in Spanish: gran · German: toll · Russian: здорово · Arabic: رائع · Hindi: महान · Turkish: harika
It is commonest in Telugu, where పెద్ద is the 86th most used word.
Great in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans groot/χrʊət/ great; big; large #128
- Albanian merak/mɛɾak/ great curiosity #975
- Arabic رائع/raː.ʔiʕ/ great, wonderful #95
- Basque primerako/primeɾako/ top-class, great #1,370
- Bengali প্রচুর/pɾot͡ʃuɾ/ great in amount #712
- Bosnian sjajno/sjâːjno/ great, magnificently, excellently #416
- Bulgarian супер[ˈsupɛr] great, awesome, superb #451
- Catalan preciosa/pɾəsiˈozə/ precious, of great value #1,089
- Chinese 要死/jɑʊ̯⁵¹ sɹ̩²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/ to a great degree #634
- Croatian sjajno/sjâːjno/ great, magnificently, excellently #446
- Czech hodně[ˈɦodɲɛ] very; to a great degree or extent #191
- Dutch grote/ˈɣroːtə/ big, large, great #247
- English very/ˈvɛɹi/ To a great extent or degree #114
- Esperanto bonega/boˈneɡa/ great, very good #742
- Estonian suurepärane/ˈsuːrepærɑne/ excellent, great, magnificent,… #337
- Finnish iso/ˈiso/ big, large, great #405
- French cool/kul/ cool! great! #620
- Georgian დიდი[d̥idi] big, large, great #66
- German toll/tɔl/ great, nice, wonderful #387
- Greek μεγάλη/meˈɣali/ big, large, great #283
- Hebrew נהדר/neheˈdaʁ/ great, wonderful #199
- Hindi महान/mə.ɦɑːn/ great, respected, renowned #352
- Hungarian nagy[ˈnɒɟ] big, great #93
- Indonesian lama/ˈlama/ long: having great duration; seemingly… #164
- Italian molti/ˈmol.ti/ a lot of, much, great, many, a lot of, lots of #604
- Korean 좋아[ˈt͡ɕo̞(ː)a̠] to be good; great; excellent #47
- Latvian lieliski/ˈlielːiski/ great, wonderful, excellent, wonderfully,… #149
- Macedonian голема[ˈɡɔlɛma] big, large, great #246
- Malay hebat/hebat/ great; profound; intense #199
- Malayalam വളരെ/ʋɐɭɐɾe/ very, to a great extent or degree #23
- Norwegian stor/stuːɾ/ large, big, great #267
- Polish świetnie/ˈɕfjɛt.ɲɛ/ very well, great, excellently #255
- Portuguese grande/ˈɡɾɐ̃.d͡ʒi/ large; great; big #173
- Romanian mare/ˈma.re/ big, large, great #122
- Russian здорово[ˈzdorəvə] great, very well, awesomely #448
- Serbian sjajno/sjâːjno/ great, magnificently, excellently #406
- Spanish gran/ˈɡɾan/ apocopic form of grande; great, grand #192
- Swedish toppen/ˈtɔpɛn/ #659
- Tamil பெரும்/pɛɾʊm/ big, great, large, major #238
- Telugu పెద్ద/ped̪ːa/ great, big, large #86
- Turkish harika/haː.ɾiˈka/ great, marvellous, fantastic, wonderful #112
- Urdu عظیم/(ʔ)ə.ziːm/ great, grand, vast, magnificent #285
- Vietnamese bạo[ʔɓaːw˧˨ʔ] to a great degree, like crazy, like mad #1,125
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) 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.