How to say “hope” in 51 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.
It is commonest in Chinese, where 希望 is the 25th most used word.
- Albanian shpresoj to hope #316
- Arabic رجاء #428
- Armenian հուսով #347
- Basque itxaropen #885
- Bengali আশা #208
- Bosnian nadao to hope #1,539
- Bulgarian надежда hope, expectation #1,130
- Catalan esperança #964
- Chinese 希望 hope; wish #25
- Croatian nadao to hope #1,458
- Czech doufám to hope #383
- Danish håber to hope #326
- Dutch hoop to hope for, to wish for #307
- English wish A desire, hope, or longing for something or… #440
- Esperanto esperas to hope #435
- Estonian loodan to hope #377
- Finnish toivon to hope, wish #716
- French espère to hope #399
- Galician esperanza #890
- Georgian იმედი #286
- German hoffe to hope #466
- Greek ελπίζω to hope to, expect to #357
- Hebrew הלוואי I wish, hope #580
- Hindi उम्मीद #379
- Hungarian remélem to hope #282
- Icelandic vona #356
- Indonesian berharap to hope #367
- Italian spero to hope #447
- Korean 기대 expectation; hope #1,648
- Latvian ceru to hope #328
- Lithuanian viltis hope, trust, reliance #1,075
- Macedonian надеж #854
- Malay harap to hope #359
- Malayalam പ്രതീക്ഷ #491
- Norwegian håper to hope, to have hope #300
- Persian امید #1,516
- Polish nadzieję #287
- Portuguese esperança #1,071
- Romanian sper to hope #344
- Russian надеяться to hope #2,395
- Serbian nadao to hope #1,553
- Slovak nádej #708
- Slovenian upanje #568
- Spanish espera to hope #183
- Swedish hopp #1,189
- Tagalog sana used to express hope or wish in something… #122
- Tamil நம்பிக்கை hope, trust, confidence, faith, assurance #161
- Turkish umut hope, wish #1,211
- Ukrainian надія #1,897
- Urdu امید #239
- Vietnamese chúc to tell someone that you wish/hope something… #485
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.