How to say “happen” in 38 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.
- sucede/suˈseðe/ Spanish
- случиться[sɫʊˈt͡ɕit͡sːə] Russian
- حدث/ħadaθa/ Arabic
- συμβαίνει/siɱˈve.ni/ Greek
- קרה/qaˈra.ja/ Hebrew
- მოხდა[mo̞χdä] Georgian
“happen” in Spanish: sucede · German: passiert · Portuguese: aconteceu · Russian: случиться · Arabic: حدث · Greek: συμβαίνει
It is commonest in Arabic, where حدث is the 88th most used word.
Happen in other languages, A to Z
- Albanian lutem/lutɛm/ to long for something to happen; to wish #80
- Arabic حدث/ħadaθa/ to happen, to take place #88
- Basque gertatu/ɡertatu/ to happen, take place #107
- Bosnian desilo/ˈdɛsɪlo/ to happen, occur #283
- Catalan succeir[suk.səˈi] to happen, occur #2,230
- Chinese 正是/ʈ͡ʂɤŋ⁵¹⁻⁵³ ʂɻ̩⁵¹/ to be precisely; to just happen to be; to be… #296
- Croatian dogoditi/doɡǒditi/ to happen #607
- Dutch gebeurd/ɣəˈbøːrt/ to happen #257
- English hope/ˈhoʊp/ To want to happen, with a sense of… #339
- Esperanto okazas/oˈkazas/ to happen, to occur #144
- Estonian toimub/ˈtoi̯mub̥/ to happen, to take place, to come about #233
- Finnish tapahtui/ˈtapahtui/ to happen, take place, occur, come about,… #192
- Galician ocorre/oˈkore/ to occur, happen #983
- Georgian მოხდა[mo̞χdä] to happen #94
- German passiert/paˈsiːɐ̯t/ to happen #199
- Greek συμβαίνει/siɱˈve.ni/ to happen, to occur, to take place #189
- Hebrew קרה/qaˈra.ja/ To happen, occur, go on #122
- Hungarian történt[ˈtørteːnt] to happen #105
- Icelandic gerast/ˈcɛːrast/ to happen, to go on, to take place #260
- Indonesian jangan/ˈd͡ʒaŋan/ expresses that something is forbidden or… #46
- Latvian notiek/ˈnuotiek/ to happen #133
- Lithuanian atsitikti/ɐtʲsʲɪˈtʲɪktʲɪ/ to happen, occur #1,909
- Malay berlaku/bər.la.ku/ to happen, to occur, to take place #128
- Malayalam സംഭവിക്കുക/sɐmb(ʱ)ɐʋikkjuɡɐ/ to happen #1,078
- Norwegian skjer/ʃeːɾ/ to happen, occur #186
- Polish stało/ˈsta.wɔ/ to happen #137
- Portuguese aconteceu/a.kõ.teˈsew/ to happen; to occur; to take place #213
- Romanian întâmplat/ɨn.tɨm.ˈplat/ to happen, occur #171
- Russian случиться[sɫʊˈt͡ɕit͡sːə] to happen, to occur, to come about #1,801
- Serbian desilo/ˈdɛsɪlo/ to happen, occur #258
- Slovenian dogajati/dɔɡàːjati/ to happen #2,112
- Spanish sucede/suˈseðe/ to happen, to befall, to occur #691
- Swedish hände/ˈhɛndɛ/ to happen; chiefly what happens quickly or… #222
- Tagalog makita/maˈkita/ to happen to see; to be able to see #145
- Tamil பலி/pɐliː/ to happen, come true #904
- Turkish olmadı/oɫ.maˈdɯ/ if not, if it doesn’t happen #489
- Ukrainian статися[ˈstatesʲɐ] to happen, to occur #1,994
- Vietnamese là[laː˨˩] Used to indicate something is bound to happen… #3
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 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.