How to say “poor” in 42 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 Basque, where behar is the 8th most used word.
- Afrikaans arm #513
- Albanian varfër #1,637
- Armenian թշվառ poor, wretched, needy, miserable #1,457
- Basque behar #8
- Bengali বেচারা helpless, poor; miserable; unfortunate #849
- Catalan mala bad, poor #726
- Chinese 不好 bad; not good; poor #114
- Czech chudák a poor man #1,865
- Danish dårlig bad, unwell, poor #596
- Dutch arme #951
- English sick In poor health; ill #579
- Esperanto kompatinda pitiful, poor #1,109
- Estonian vaene poor, not rich #880
- Finnish huono bad, poor #589
- French pauvre #673
- Galician pobre #551
- Georgian საწყალი pitiable, pitiful, poor #1,345
- German arme #986
- Greek αδύνατο weak, poor #1,571
- Hebrew גרוע bad, of poor quality #402
- Hindi घटिया inferior, of poor quality #1,393
- Hungarian szegény #777
- Icelandic ræfill poor wretch #1,410
- Indonesian papa poor condition, misery #1,141
- Italian povero #1,568
- Latvian nabaga poor man, pauper #1,201
- Lithuanian vargšas poor man, pauper #1,192
- Macedonian лош bad, poor #522
- Malay miskin poor, needy, unfortunate, impoverished;… #1,189
- Norwegian stakkars pitiful, poor #977
- Persian بیچاره helpless, poor #1,900
- Polish biedny #2,498
- Portuguese pobre #1,109
- Slovak chudák poor man, pauper, beggar #1,118
- Slovenian reven #1,674
- Spanish pobre #746
- Tagalog aba poor, indigent #390
- Tamil ஏழை poor, in poverty #724
- Telugu పేద a poor person #427
- Turkish zavallı poor, miserable, piteous #648
- Urdu غریب #873
- Vietnamese tồi poor; bad; mediocre #884
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.