How to say “poor” in 42 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.
- pobre/ˈpobɾe/ Spanish
- թշվառ/tʰəʃˈvɑr/ Armenian
- ஏழை/eːɻɐɪ̯/ Tamil
- غریب/ɣə.ɾiːb/ Urdu
“poor” in Spanish: pobre · French: pauvre · German: arme · Italian: povero · Portuguese: pobre · Turkish: zavallı
It is commonest in Basque, where behar is the 8th most used word.
Poor in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans arm/ˈɑr(ə)m/ #513
- Albanian varfër[ˈväɹ.fɜɹ] #1,637
- Armenian թշվառ/tʰəʃˈvɑr/ poor, wretched, needy, miserable #1,457
- Basque behar/behar/ #8
- Bengali বেচারা/bet͡ʃaɾa/ helpless, poor; miserable; unfortunate #849
- Catalan mala[ˈma.lə] bad, poor #726
- Chinese 不好/pu⁵¹ xɑʊ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/ bad; not good; poor #114
- Czech chudák[ˈxudaːk] a poor man #1,865
- Danish dårlig[ˈd̥ɒːli] bad, unwell, poor #596
- Dutch arme/ˈɑrmə/ #951
- English sick/ˈsɪk/ In poor health; ill #579
- Esperanto kompatinda/kompaˈtinda/ pitiful, poor #1,109
- Estonian vaene/ˈvɑe̯ne/ poor, not rich #880
- Finnish huono/ˈhuo̯no/ bad, poor #589
- French pauvre/povʁ/ #673
- Galician pobre/ˈpɔbɾe/ #551
- Georgian საწყალი[sät͡sʼχʼäli] pitiable, pitiful, poor #1,345
- German arme/ˈaːɐ̯mə/ #986
- Greek αδύνατο/aˈðinaˌto/ weak, poor #1,571
- Hebrew גרוע/ɡaˈʁua/ bad, of poor quality #402
- Hindi घटिया/ɡʱə.ʈɪ.jɑː/ inferior, of poor quality #1,393
- Hungarian szegény[ˈsɛɡeːɲ] #777
- Icelandic ræfill[ˈraiːvɪtl̥] poor wretch #1,410
- Indonesian papa/pa.pa/ poor condition, misery #1,141
- Italian povero/ˈpɔ.ve.ro/ #1,568
- Latvian nabaga/ˈnabaɡa/ poor man, pauper #1,201
- Lithuanian vargšas[²ˈʋɐrˑkʃɐs] poor man, pauper #1,192
- Macedonian лош[ɫɔʃ] bad, poor #522
- Malay miskin/ˈmisken/ poor, needy, unfortunate, impoverished;… #1,189
- Norwegian stakkars/ˈstɑkɑʂ/ pitiful, poor #977
- Persian بیچاره[biː.t͡ʃʰɒː.ɹé] helpless, poor #1,900
- Polish biedny/ˈbjɛd.nɘ/ #2,498
- Portuguese pobre/ˈpɔ.bɾi/ #1,109
- Slovak chudák/xudaːk/ poor man, pauper, beggar #1,118
- Slovenian reven/rèːʋən/ #1,674
- Spanish pobre/ˈpobɾe/ #746
- Tagalog aba/ʔaˈbaʔ/ poor, indigent #390
- Tamil ஏழை/eːɻɐɪ̯/ poor, in poverty #724
- Telugu పేద/peːd̪a/ a poor person #427
- Turkish zavallı[ˈzɑ.vɑɫ.ɫɯ] poor, miserable, piteous #648
- Urdu غریب/ɣə.ɾiːb/ #873
- Vietnamese tồi[toj˨˩] poor; bad; mediocre #884
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), Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), 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.