How to say “nonsense” 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 Hindi, where बकवास is the 239th most used word.
- Albanian marri foolishness, nonsense, insanity #1,783
- Arabic هراء nonsense, baloney #480
- Armenian անհեթեթություն nonsense, absurdity #1,776
- Bosnian glupost stupidity, foolishness, nonsense #1,455
- Bulgarian глупост stupidity, nonsense #1,789
- Chinese 狗屁 nonsense; untrue; bullshit #1,120
- Croatian glupost stupidity, foolishness, nonsense #1,450
- Czech nesmysl #1,943
- Danish vrøvl nonsense, gibberish #2,227
- Dutch onzin #777
- German unsinn #1,392
- Greek βλακείες nonsense, stupidity, idiocy, rubbish #1,698
- Hindi बकवास nonsense, idiocy #239
- Hungarian hülyeség bullshit, rubbish, nonsense #1,780
- Icelandic bull nonsense, gibberish #939
- Italian stronzate rubbish, gibberish, nonsense, garbage #1,342
- Korean 헛소리 nonsense, baloney, bullshit #1,040
- Lithuanian nesąmonė nonsense, absurdity #447
- Macedonian глупости stupidity, nonsense, foolishness, foolery #524
- Malayalam അസംബന്ധം #692
- Norwegian tull nonsense, hogwash, silliness, buffoonery #1,176
- Persian چرت #1,055
- Polish bzdury #2,455
- Serbian glupost stupidity, foolishness, nonsense #1,426
- Slovak nezmysel #1,116
- Slovenian bedarija #1,369
- Swedish strunt #2,349
- Tagalog kalokohan nonsense; craziness; foolishness #313
- Turkish saçmalık #850
- Urdu فضول #1,496
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.