How to say “lie” 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 Korean, where 바로 is the 88th most used word.
- Afrikaans lê to lie #244
- Albanian gënjyer to lie #1,293
- Arabic تكذب to pretend to lie #734
- Armenian պառկել to lie, lie down #692
- Basque oheratu to go to bed, lie down #692
- Bengali মিথ্যা falsehood, lie #297
- Bosnian slažem to lie #1,013
- Bulgarian лъжа untruth, lie, falsehood #780
- Catalan ment to lie #908
- Chinese 趴下 to lie face down; to lie prostrate #695
- Croatian slažem to lie #915
- Czech lhal to lie #1,302
- Danish ligger to lie #437
- Dutch ligt to lie; to be lying down #394
- English liar Someone who tells a lie; especially, a person… #1,909
- Esperanto kuŝas to lie, to recline #919
- Estonian valeta #1,187
- Finnish valehtele to lie #2,205
- French menti to lie #1,077
- Galician mentira lie, falsehood #1,253
- Georgian ტყუილი deceit, lie #1,101
- German liegt to lie #440
- Greek ψέματα #407
- Hebrew שקר lie, falsehood #973
- Hindi झूठ lie, falsehood #398
- Hungarian hazugság #1,605
- Icelandic satt true, not a lie, authentic #131
- Indonesian kebohongan #1,358
- Italian mente to lie #573
- Korean 바로 truly, without lie or deception #88
- Latvian melo to lie, to tell lies #1,255
- Lithuanian melas #885
- Macedonian лага #1,157
- Malay baring to lie down #2,112
- Malayalam നുണ lie, false information, intentional untruth #262
- Norwegian ligger to lie #408
- Persian دروغ #261
- Polish kłamstwo #2,336
- Portuguese mente to lie #814
- Romanian mint to lie #1,481
- Russian ложь lie, falsehood #1,574
- Serbian slažem to lie #890
- Slovak klamal to lie #712
- Slovenian laž #619
- Spanish mentira lie, trick, falsity #1,300
- Swedish ligger to lie; be in a horizontal position #329
- Tagalog humiga to lie on; to lie down #1,081
- Tamil பொய் lie, falsehood, falsity, untruth #789
- Ukrainian неправда untruth, falsehood, lie #1,264
- Urdu جھوٹ lie, fib, falsehood, fabrication #254
- Vietnamese nằm to lie #531
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.