How to say “heavy” in 40 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.
- ثقيل/θa.qiːl/ Arabic
- 沉重/ʈ͡ʂʰən³⁵ ʈ͡ʂʊŋ⁵¹/ Chinese
- भारी/bʱɑː.ɾiː/ Hindi
- ծանր/ˈt͡sɑnəɾ/ Armenian
- ভারী/bʱaɾi/ Bengali
- கனமான/kɐnɐmɑːnɐ/ Tamil
“heavy” in French: lourd · German: schwer · Italian: pesante · Chinese: 沉重 · Arabic: ثقيل · Hindi: भारी · Turkish: ağır
It is commonest in Catalan, where greu is the 260th most used word.
Heavy in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans lig/ləχ/ light; not heavy #306
- Albanian rëndë/ɾəndə/ #737
- Arabic ثقيل/θa.qiːl/ #2,115
- Armenian ծանր/ˈt͡sɑnəɾ/ #333
- Bengali ভারী/bʱaɾi/ #949
- Bosnian težak/těːʒak/ heavy, weighty #1,208
- Bulgarian тежък[ˈtɛʒɐk] heavy, weighty, ponderous, elephantine #1,995
- Catalan greu[ˈɡɾew] heavy, weighty #260
- Chinese 沉重/ʈ͡ʂʰən³⁵ ʈ͡ʂʊŋ⁵¹/ #2,129
- Croatian težak/těːʒak/ heavy, weighty #1,183
- Czech těžký[ˈcɛʃkiː] #1,247
- Dutch zwaar/zʋaːr/ heavy, hefty #930
- English lead/ˈlɛd/ A heavy, pliable, inelastic metal element,… #826
- Esperanto peza/ˈpeza/ heavy, onerous, weighty #1,870
- Estonian raske/ˈrɑske/ #317
- French lourd/luʁ/ #2,493
- Galician vese/ˈbese/ to plough, especially with a heavy plough #2,310
- German schwer/ʃveːr/ heavy, weighty #480
- Hindi भारी/bʱɑː.ɾiː/ #744
- Hungarian súlyos[ˈʃuːjoʃ] #1,645
- Icelandic kafi[ˈkʰaːvɪ] heavy smoke or fog #1,746
- Indonesian berat/bəˈrat/ #612
- Italian pesante/peˈzan.te/ #2,141
- Latvian smagi/ˈsmaɡi/ heavy, severe, difficult, heavily, severely,… #1,047
- Lithuanian sunkus/sʊŋˈkʊs/ #886
- Macedonian тежок[ˈtɛʒɔk] heavy, weighty, ponderous, elephantine #1,029
- Malay lori[lo.ri] A lorry; a heavy truck #1,227
- Malayalam കനത്ത/kɐnɐt̪t̪ɐ/ #1,186
- Norwegian tungt/ˈtʊŋt/ #2,114
- Polish ciężkie/ˈt͡ɕɛw̃ʂ.kjɛ/ #2,205
- Romanian greu/ɡrew/ #318
- Serbian težak/těːʒak/ heavy, weighty #1,095
- Slovak ťažký/caʃkiː/ #1,037
- Slovenian težek/tɛ̀ːʒək/ #1,301
- Tagalog mabigat/mabiˈɡat/ #1,228
- Tamil கனமான/kɐnɐmɑːnɐ/ #1,573
- Turkish ağır/aˈɯɾ/ #746
- Ukrainian важкий[ʋɐʒˈkɪi̯] #2,130
- Urdu بھاری/bʱɑːɾiː/ #983
- Vietnamese nặng[naŋ˧˨ʔ] #844
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.