How to say “permission” in 37 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 Slovenian, where lahko is the 19th most used word.
- Afrikaans toestemming #1,228
- Albanian leje permission, allowance, authorization #823
- Arabic إجازة permission, authorization #1,228
- Bengali অনুমতি #402
- Bosnian dozvole permission, permit, licence, consent #2,460
- Catalan permís #1,047
- Danish adgang access, permission, entry #995
- Dutch toestemming permission, authorization #1,300
- English may To have permission to, be allowed. Used in… #221
- Esperanto permeson #1,556
- Estonian luba #547
- Finnish lupaan #745
- German erlaubnis #2,183
- Greek άδεια #704
- Hebrew רשות permission, authorization #1,550
- Hindi अनुमति permission, authorization, consent #638
- Hungarian engedélyt #2,153
- Icelandic leyfi leave, permission, consent, authorisation #525
- Indonesian permisi permission, authorisation; consent #417
- Korean 허락 consent; permission #1,394
- Macedonian дозволи permission, license #440
- Malay kebenaran #586
- Malayalam അനുവാദം #658
- Norwegian tillatelse #1,439
- Persian اجازه #176
- Portuguese permissão #2,363
- Serbian dozvole permission, permit, licence, consent #2,466
- Slovak povolenie permission, authorization #679
- Slovenian lahko may, with permission, to be allowed to, can #19
- Spanish permiso #947
- Swedish lovar #502
- Tagalog permiso permission; permit #1,682
- Tamil அனுமதி permission, approval, assent #471
- Telugu అనుమతి consent, permission #479
- Turkish müsaade #1,376
- Ukrainian дозвіл #2,222
- Urdu اجازت permission, authorisation, clearance #276
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.