How to say “horrible” in 30 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 糟糕 is the 207th most used word.
- Afrikaans aaklige #1,230
- Bengali কাণ্ড sin, horrible mistake, incident, event #2,087
- Bosnian užasan terrible, horrible, awful #2,462
- Bulgarian ужасен terrible, horrible, awful #1,354
- Catalan horrible #1,098
- Chinese 糟糕 terrible; awful; horrible #207
- Czech hrozný horrible, terrible, awful #1,603
- Estonian õudne horrible, terrible, awful, ghastly, dreadful #1,628
- Finnish kamalaa horrible, terrible, awful, ghastly #1,524
- French horrible #1,098
- Galician horrible #1,384
- Greek απαίσιο awful, dreadful, horrible appalling, terrible #1,526
- Hebrew נוראי Terrible, horrible, awful: extremely bad #1,348
- Hindi भयानक scary, horrible, terrifying #839
- Italian orribile horrible, loathsome #1,373
- Latvian šausmīgi horrible, terrible, awful, horribly,… #1,386
- Lithuanian siaubingas terrible, awful, horrible #1,414
- Macedonian ужасен horrible, dreadful, horrid, awful #1,798
- Malay menakutkan scary; horrible #595
- Malayalam ഭയാനകമായ horrible, scary #1,329
- Persian وحشتناک horrible, terrible, awful #958
- Polish okropne awful, horrible, terrible #1,808
- Portuguese horrível cause of horror; horrible; terrible #974
- Romanian groaznic dreadful, terrible, horrible, awful, hateful #1,209
- Serbian užasan terrible, horrible, awful #2,290
- Slovak hrozný horrible, terrible, awful #1,033
- Slovenian grozen horrible, terrible #788
- Spanish horrible #875
- Turkish felaket horrendous, terrible, horrible #2,003
- Urdu خوفناک horrible, terrifying, frightful, dreadful #640
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.