How to say “important” in 46 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.
- مهم/mu.himm/ Arabic
- σημαντικό/ˌsimadiˈko/ Greek
- חשוב/χaˈʃuv/ Hebrew
- მნიშვნელოვანი[mniʃʷne̞ɫo̞väni] Georgian
- կարևոր/kɑɾeˈvoɾ/ Armenian
- গুরুত্বপূর্ণ/ɡuɾut̪ːɔpuɾno/ Bengali
“important” in German: wichtig · Italian: importante · Portuguese: importante · Arabic: مهم · Turkish: önemli · Greek: σημαντικό
It is commonest in Turkish, where önemli is the 156th most used word.
Important in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans belangrik/bəˈlaŋ.rək/ #465
- Albanian rëndësishëm/ɾəndəsiʃəm/ #956
- Arabic مهم/mu.himm/ #399
- Armenian կարևոր/kɑɾeˈvoɾ/ important; serious; significant #299
- Basque garrantzitsu/ɡarant͡s̻it͡s̺u/ #889
- Bengali গুরুত্বপূর্ণ/ɡuɾut̪ːɔpuɾno/ important, necessary, essential #361
- Bosnian važan/ʋǎːʒan/ #1,462
- Bulgarian важен[ˈvaʒɛn] important, of importance, momentous, crucial,… #1,408
- Catalan importants/impurˈtans/ #1,797
- Chinese 主要/ʈ͡ʂu²¹⁴⁻²¹ jɑʊ̯⁵¹/ most important; principal; main; major;… #501
- Croatian važan/ʋǎːʒan/ #1,299
- Czech důležitý[ˈduːlɛʒɪtiː] #1,506
- Danish vigtigt/ˈveɡdid/ #548
- Dutch belangrijk/bəˈlɑŋ.rɛi̯k/ #528
- Esperanto gravas/ˈɡravas/ to be important, to matter #216
- Estonian tähtis/tˈæhtis/ #452
- Finnish tärkeää/ˈtærkeæː/ important, very relevant #649
- French grand-chose/ɡʁɑ̃.ʃoz/ a big deal; something or someone important #2,321
- Galician importante/impoɾˈtante/ #359
- Georgian მნიშვნელოვანი[mniʃʷne̞ɫo̞väni] #608
- German wichtig/ˈvɪçtɪk/ important, relevant, significant, weighty #545
- Greek σημαντικό/ˌsimadiˈko/ important, significant, considerable,… #504
- Hebrew חשוב/χaˈʃuv/ #287
- Hungarian fontos[ˈfontoʃ] #324
- Icelandic mikilvægur[ˈmɪːcɪlˌvaiːɣʏr] important, imperative #1,649
- Indonesian penting/pənˈtiŋ/ important; primary #282
- Italian importante/im.porˈtan.te/ #410
- Korean 큰일[kxɯnniɭ] important affair #1,131
- Latvian svarīgi/ˈsʋariːɡi/ important, importantly; adverbial form of… #435
- Lithuanian svarbus[sʋɐrˈbʊs] #820
- Macedonian важен[ˈvaʒɛn] #990
- Malayalam പ്രധാന/prɐd̪(ʱ)aːnɐ/ important, foremost #282
- Norwegian viktig/ˈvɪktɪ/ #394
- Persian مهم[mo.ɦem(ː)] important task, important affair #185
- Polish ważne/ˈvaʐ.nɛ/ #535
- Portuguese importante/ĩ.poʁˈtɐ̃.t͡ʃi/ #372
- Romanian important[im.porˈtant] #437
- Serbian važan/ʋǎːʒan/ #1,299
- Slovak dôležitý/du̯ɔʎeʒitiː/ #974
- Slovenian pomemben/pɔmèːmbən/ #502
- Spanish importa/imˈpoɾta/ to matter, to be important #228
- Swedish viktig/²vɪktɪ(ɡ)/ #1,251
- Tagalog importante/ʔimpoɾˈtante/ #607
- Tamil முக்கியம்/mʊkːɪjɐm/ that which is primary, principle or important #776
- Turkish önemli/ø.nemˈli/ #156
- Vietnamese chôm[t͡ɕom˧˧] to steal, usually something that is not very… #2,256
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.