How to say “necessary” in 40 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 Tamil, where வேண்டும் is the 7th most used word.
- Arabic ضروري necessary, indispensable #1,592
- Armenian հարկավոր needed, necessary #698
- Bengali দরকার necessary, required #107
- Bosnian potreban #865
- Bulgarian трябва it is necessary, one must #24
- Catalan necessari #1,329
- Chinese 不用 not necessary; don't; no need to #60
- Croatian potreban #1,120
- Czech třeba necessary, needed #334
- Danish nødvendigt necessary, essential #1,037
- Dutch moet to be necessary, to be required #48
- English patient Willing to wait if necessary; not losing… #1,111
- Estonian vaja needed, necessary #114
- French faut to need, have to, to be necessary #126
- Galician precisa #632
- Georgian საჭირო necessary, needed, requested, required #548
- Hebrew הכרחי #1,685
- Hindi आवश्यक #1,477
- Hungarian szükséges #1,095
- Indonesian usah necessary, obligatory #918
- Italian necessario #1,121
- Latvian vajag to be necessary, to be needed, to be desired #120
- Lithuanian reikalingas needed, necessary, required #784
- Macedonian треба to be necessary, be advisable #36
- Malay usah it is not necessary; there is no need #1,481
- Norwegian nødvendig #1,086
- Persian لازم #201
- Polish potrzebny needed, necessary #1,633
- Portuguese necessário #1,218
- Romanian trebuie to be necessary, to need to, to have to #36
- Russian нужно it is necessary, one must #69
- Serbian potreban #746
- Slovak treba be necessary, be needed #380
- Spanish necesario necessary, requisite #863
- Swedish nödvändigt #1,940
- Tagalog kailangan #43
- Tamil வேண்டும் 'will be needed or required', 'will be… #7
- Turkish lazım necessary, required #175
- Ukrainian потрібно used to express necessity: must, has to,… #164
- Urdu ضروری necessary, required #139
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.