How to say “official” in 31 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 Vietnamese, where quan is the 147th most used word.
- Afrikaans offisiële #1,474
- Albanian zyrtar #1,960
- Arabic رسمي official, legitimate #1,485
- Armenian պաշտոնական #1,638
- Bengali কর্মকর্তা official, officer #1,460
- Catalan oficial #749
- Chinese 大臣 minister; high-level official; secretary;… #1,011
- Czech oficiální #2,339
- English judge A public official whose duty it is to… #968
- Estonian ametlik #1,762
- German offiziell #2,429
- Hebrew רשמי #1,208
- Hindi आधिकारिक governmental, official #2,089
- Hungarian hivatalos #1,738
- Icelandic opinbert public, official #2,131
- Indonesian petugas #674
- Italian ufficiale #1,319
- Korean 원 won; the official currency of South Korea,… #609
- Latvian darbinieku employee; clerk; official #1,834
- Lithuanian pareigūnas official, officer #1,152
- Malay pegawai officer; official #533
- Malayalam ഔദ്യോഗിക #1,021
- Persian مأمور official, officer, delegate, functionary,… #1,352
- Portuguese oficial #1,179
- Romanian oficial #1,462
- Slovak podpísať to sign official by writing one's signature #1,200
- Spanish oficial #778
- Tagalog pinuno chief; official; officer; leader #602
- Telugu న్యాయమూర్తి a public official whose duty is to administer… #1,195
- Urdu اجلاس session, official meeting, assembly session #1,273
- Vietnamese quan #147
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.