How to say “lose” in 45 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.
- perdido/peɾˈdido/ Spanish
- потерять[pətʲɪˈrʲætʲ] Russian
- فقد/fa.qa.da/ Arabic
- 失去/ʂɻ̩⁵⁵ t͡ɕʰy⁵¹/ Chinese
- खोना/kʰoː.nɑː/ Hindi
- έχασα/ˈe.xa.sa/ Greek
“lose” in Spanish: perdido · French: perdu · German: verloren · Italian: perso · Portuguese: perder · Chinese: 失去 · Russian: потерять · Arabic: فقد
It is commonest in Chinese, where 失去 is the 126th most used word.
Lose in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans verloor/fərˈlʊər/ to lose #214
- Albanian humbur/humbuɾ/ to lose, misplace #256
- Arabic فقد/fa.qa.da/ to lose, to misplace, to miss #218
- Armenian պարտվող/pɑɾtˈvoʁ/ to be defeated, to lose #1,081
- Basque galdu/ɡaldu/ to lose #141
- Bosnian izgubiti/izɡǔbiti/ to lose, misplace #902
- Bulgarian загубя[zɐˈɡubʲɐ] to lose #1,633
- Catalan perdut[pərˈdut] to lose #387
- Chinese 失去/ʂɻ̩⁵⁵ t͡ɕʰy⁵¹/ to lose #126
- Croatian izgubiti/izɡǔbiti/ to lose, misplace #770
- Czech udržet[ˈudr̩ʒɛt] to hold and not lose #1,324
- Danish mistet/ˈmesdəð/ to lose #743
- Dutch verloren/vərˈloːrə(n)/ to lose #614
- English forget/fɚˈɡɛt/ To lose remembrance of #383
- Esperanto perdis/ˈperdis/ to lose #361
- Estonian kaotama/ˈkɑo̯tɑmɑ/ to lose #2,146
- Finnish menettää/ˈmenetːæːˣ/ to lose #1,338
- French perdu/pɛʁ.dy/ to lose #363
- Galician perder/peɾˈdeɾ/ to lose #585
- Georgian წააგო[t͡sʼääɡo̞] to lose #892
- German verloren/fɛɐ̯ˈloːʁən/ to lose #455
- Greek έχασα/ˈe.xa.sa/ to lose #799
- Hebrew איבד/(ʔ)iˈbed/ to lose #1,218
- Hindi खोना/kʰoː.nɑː/ to lose #2,386
- Icelandic missa[ˈmɪs(ː)a] to lose #424
- Indonesian berdarah/bərˈdarah/ to bleed: to lose blood #1,234
- Italian perso/ˈpɛr.so/ to lose #414
- Latvian zaudēt[ˈzàwdɛ̂ːt] to lose #865
- Lithuanian prarasti[prɐˈrɐsʲtʲɪ] to lose #1,005
- Macedonian изгуби[ˈizɡubi] to lose, misplace #645
- Malay hilang/ˈhilaŋ/ to lose #266
- Norwegian mistet/ˈmɪstət/ to lose to cease to be in one's possession or… #393
- Polish stracić/ˈstra.t͡ɕit͡ɕ/ to lose #1,641
- Portuguese perder/peʁˈde(ʁ)/ to lose #466
- Romanian pierdut/pjerˈdut/ to lose #298
- Russian потерять[pətʲɪˈrʲætʲ] to lose, to waste #1,750
- Serbian izgubila/ˈizɡʊˌbɪlɐ/ to lose, misplace #965
- Slovenian izgubiti/izɡubìːti/ to lose, to not have anymore #644
- Spanish perdido/peɾˈdido/ to lose #586
- Swedish förlorade/ˈfœrluːˌradɛ/ to lose #818
- Tagalog maligaw/maliˈɡaw/ to get lost; to lose one's way #2,301
- Turkish kaybetmek/kajbetˈmec/ to lose #1,918
- Ukrainian втратити[ˈʍtratete] to lose #2,147
- Urdu کھونا/kʰoːnɑː/ to lose #1,568
- Vietnamese thua[tʰuə˧˧] to lose #955
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 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.