How to say “official” in 31 different 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.
- oficial/ofiˈθjal/ Spanish
- رسمي/ras.mijj/ Arabic
- רשמי/riʃˈmi/ Hebrew
- պաշտոնական/pɑʃtonɑˈkɑn/ Armenian
- কর্মকর্তা/kɔɾmɔkɔɾt̪a/ Bengali
- ഔദ്യോഗിക/au̯d̪joːɡiɡɐ/ Malayalam
“official” in Spanish: oficial · German: offiziell · Italian: ufficiale · Portuguese: oficial · Arabic: رسمي
It is commonest in Vietnamese, where quan is the 147th most used word.
Official in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans offisiële/ɔfiʃiˈiələ/ #1,474
- Albanian zyrtar/zyɾtaɾ/ #1,960
- Arabic رسمي/ras.mijj/ official, legitimate #1,485
- Armenian պաշտոնական/pɑʃtonɑˈkɑn/ #1,638
- Bengali কর্মকর্তা/kɔɾmɔkɔɾt̪a/ official, officer #1,460
- Catalan oficial[u.fi.siˈal] #749
- Chinese 大臣/tä⁵¹ ʈ͡ʂʰən³⁵/ minister; high-level official; secretary;… #1,011
- Czech oficiální[ˈofɪt͡sɪjaːlɲiː] #2,339
- English judge/d͡ʒʌd͡ʒ/ A public official whose duty it is to… #968
- Estonian ametlik/ˈɑmetlik/ #1,762
- German offiziell/ˌɔfiˈtsjɛl/ #2,429
- Hebrew רשמי/riʃˈmi/ #1,208
- Hindi आधिकारिक/ɑː.d̪ʱɪ.kɑː.ɾɪk/ governmental, official #2,089
- Hungarian hivatalos[ˈhivɒtɒloʃ] #1,738
- Icelandic opinbert/ˈɔːpɪnpɛr̥t/ public, official #2,131
- Indonesian petugas/pəˈtuɡas/ #674
- Italian ufficiale/uf.fiˈt͡ʃa.le/ #1,319
- Korean 원[wʌ̹n] won; the official currency of South Korea,… #609
- Latvian darbinieku/ˈdarbinieku/ employee; clerk; official #1,834
- Lithuanian pareigūnas[pɐrʲɛɪ²ˈɡuːnɐs] official, officer #1,152
- Malay pegawai/pəˈɡawai̯/ officer; official #533
- Malayalam ഔദ്യോഗിക/au̯d̪joːɡiɡɐ/ #1,021
- Persian مأمور[mæʔ.múːɹ] official, officer, delegate, functionary,… #1,352
- Portuguese oficial/o.fi.siˈaw/ #1,179
- Romanian oficial[o.fi.tʃiˈal] #1,462
- Slovak podpísať/pɔtpiːsac/ to sign official by writing one's signature #1,200
- Spanish oficial/ofiˈθjal/ #778
- Tagalog pinuno/piˈnunoʔ/ chief; official; officer; leader #602
- Telugu న్యాయమూర్తి/ˈnjaːjaˌmuːrti/ a public official whose duty is to administer… #1,195
- Urdu اجلاس/ɪd͡ʒ.lɑːs/ session, official meeting, assembly session #1,273
- Vietnamese quan[kwaːn˧˧] #147
The speaker reads the word in the voice the LangX app uses for that language — synthesised, not a recording of a native speaker, so treat it as a guide. A row without a button has no reading we are free to use, or none we trust, yet. Voices for Bengali (google (bn_BD), CC BY-SA 4.0), Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), CC BY-SA 4.0), Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 4.0) and Vietnamese (vais1000 (vi_VN), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.