How to say “minister” 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 Basque, where lehendakari is the 533rd most used word.
- Afrikaans dominee pastor, minister #1,595
- Arabic وزير minister, cabinet minister #1,804
- Basque lehendakari president, prime minister #533
- Bengali মন্ত্রী #1,115
- Bulgarian министър minister, secretary #2,071
- Catalan ministre #1,510
- Chinese 大臣 minister; high-level official; secretary;… #1,011
- Esperanto ministro #2,268
- Estonian minister #2,092
- French ministre #1,657
- Galician ministro #1,420
- German minister #2,409
- Hebrew כומר priest, minister, pastor, parson #1,490
- Hindi मंत्री #1,090
- Icelandic prestur priest, minister #1,418
- Indonesian menteri #1,183
- Italian ministro #2,016
- Korean 목사님 pastor; minister #1,826
- Lithuanian ministras #2,024
- Malay menteri A minister #849
- Malayalam മന്ത്രി #788
- Norwegian prest a priest, minister #2,156
- Persian وزیر #2,375
- Romanian ministru #2,282
- Slovak premiér prime minister #2,207
- Spanish ministro #1,662
- Tamil பிரதமர் prime minister, premier #1,094
- Telugu మంత్రి #764
- Ukrainian міністр #2,499
- Urdu وزیر #2,415
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.