How to say “hero” in 42 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.
- héroe/ˈeɾoe/ Spanish
- герой[ɡʲɪˈroj] Russian
- بطل/batˤal/ Arabic
- 英雄/iŋ⁵⁵ ɕi̯ʊŋ³⁵/ Chinese
- 영웅[jʌ̹ŋuŋ] Korean
- नायक/nɑː.jək/ Hindi
“hero” in Spanish: héroe · French: héros · German: held · Italian: eroe · Portuguese: herói · Chinese: 英雄 · Korean: 영웅 · Russian: герой
It is commonest in Chinese, where 英雄 is the 353rd most used word.
Hero in other languages, A to Z
- Arabic بطل/batˤal/ #801
- Basque heroi/heɾoi̯/ #898
- Bengali বীর/biɾ/ #1,328
- Bosnian heroj/xěroːj/ #1,330
- Bulgarian герой[ɡɛˈrɔj] #954
- Catalan heroi[əˈɾɔj] #1,023
- Chinese 英雄/iŋ⁵⁵ ɕi̯ʊŋ³⁵/ #353
- Croatian heroj/xěroːj/ #1,659
- Czech hrdina[ˈɦr̩ɟɪna] #1,551
- Dutch held/ɦɛlt/ #1,163
- Esperanto heroo/heˈroo/ #1,231
- Estonian kangelane/ˈkɑŋɡ̊elɑne/ #992
- Finnish sankari/ˈsɑŋkɑri/ hero, heroine #1,850
- French héros/e.ʁo/ #1,076
- Galician heroe/ɛˈɾɔe/ #1,422
- German held/hɛlt/ #1,676
- Greek ήρωας/ˈiroˌas/ #1,529
- Hindi नायक/nɑː.jək/ #1,375
- Hungarian hős[ˈhøːʃ] #1,736
- Icelandic hetja[ˈhɛːtja] #898
- Indonesian pahlawan/pahˈlawan/ hero, patriot, a strong and brave warrior #718
- Italian eroe/eˈrɔ.e/ #1,469
- Korean 영웅[jʌ̹ŋuŋ] #1,179
- Latvian varonis/ˈʋaruonis/ #1,021
- Lithuanian didvyris[ˈdʲɪdʲʋʲiːrʲɪs] #896
- Macedonian херој[ˈxɛɾɔj] brave man, hero #707
- Malay pahlawan/pahˈlawan/ hero, patriot, a strong and brave warrior #743
- Persian قهرمان[qæɦ.ɹæ.mɒ́ːn] champion; hero #575
- Polish bohaterem/bɔ.xaˈtɛ.rɛm/ #2,464
- Portuguese herói/eˈɾɔj/ #1,369
- Romanian erou[eˈɾow] #1,415
- Russian герой[ɡʲɪˈroj] #2,011
- Serbian heroj/xěroːj/ #1,351
- Slovak hrdina/ɦr̩ɟina/ #743
- Slovenian junak/junàːk/ #574
- Spanish héroe/ˈeɾoe/ #1,465
- Swedish hjälte/ˈjɛlˌtɛ/ a hero, a person of great bravery #1,256
- Tagalog bayani/baˈjani/ #1,671
- Tamil நாயகன்/nɑːjɐɡɐn/ hero of a poem or story #482
- Turkish kahraman/kɑh.ɾɑ.mɑn/ #1,156
- Ukrainian герой[ɦeˈrɔi̯] #1,369
- Urdu بیر/biːɾ/ hero, warrior, ghazi #1,514
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 Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.