How to say “nice” in 38 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 Georgian, where კარგი is the 30th most used word.
- Afrikaans lief nice, sweet #162
- Albanian këndshëm pleasant, nice, likable #1,081
- Arabic طيب good, wholesome, nice, fine #639
- Armenian սիրունիկ cute, nice, pretty #1,634
- Bosnian lepa nice, pretty #920
- Bulgarian приятен pleasant, enjoyable, nice #1,263
- Catalan amable kind, nice, friendly #900
- Croatian lijep nice, pretty #937
- Czech pěkný #840
- Danish hyggeligt nice, friendly #1,193
- Dutch leuk nice, pleasant, enjoyable #205
- Esperanto simpatia nice, likable #1,894
- Estonian kena nice, kind #272
- Finnish hauskaa pleasant, nice, merry, fun, enjoyable #279
- French sympa nice; likeable #794
- Georgian კარგი nice, okay, well, good #30
- German toll great, nice, wonderful #387
- Greek ωραίο good, fine, nice #418
- Hebrew נחמד nice, pleasant, lovely #221
- Hindi अच्छी good, nice, fine #199
- Hungarian kedves nice, kind, pleasant #327
- Icelandic fínt fine, nice #266
- Indonesian baik good, nice, decent #44
- Italian bella nice, fair, fine, pleasant; beautiful #295
- Korean 괜찮다 to be nice, good, passable, OK, all right #1,284
- Latvian jauki nice, pleasant, nicely, pleasantly; adverbial… #260
- Lithuanian mielas nice, sweet #530
- Macedonian фин kind, nice #1,493
- Malay bagus good, nice, decent, favourable #100
- Norwegian hyggelig nice, pleasant #357
- Polish fajnie cool, great, nice #1,065
- Portuguese simpático nice, pleasant, likable #1,419
- Russian хороший good, nice, fine #454
- Serbian lepa nice, pretty #641
- Slovak pekné #327
- Swedish fint nice to look at or listen to or the like,… #497
- Turkish hoş #256
- Vietnamese xinh nice; pretty #939
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.