How to say “professor” in 34 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 English, where don is the 31st most used word.
- Albanian profesor #949
- Arabic أستاذ #1,721
- Bengali শেখ sheik; teacher; professor #2,174
- Bosnian profesor #1,526
- Bulgarian професор #1,571
- Chinese 教授 #340
- Croatian profesor #1,657
- Czech profesor #2,181
- Danish professor #1,330
- Dutch professor #1,185
- English don A university professor, particularly one at… #31
- Esperanto profesoro #597
- Finnish professori #1,535
- French prof teacher, professor #2,115
- German professor #1,186
- Greek καθηγητής professor, university teacher, lecturer #1,764
- Hebrew פרופסור A professor, a college professor, a… #1,007
- Hungarian professzor #1,397
- Indonesian profesor #1,184
- Latvian profesors #1,927
- Lithuanian profesorius #1,228
- Macedonian професор #1,625
- Malay profesor #952
- Norwegian professor #1,284
- Romanian profesor #1,278
- Russian профессор #1,445
- Serbian profesor #1,490
- Slovenian profesor #493
- Spanish profesor #836
- Swedish professor #1,793
- Tamil பேராசிரியர் #1,089
- Turkish profesör #1,000
- Ukrainian професор #1,695
- Urdu استاد professor; teacher, tutor #573
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.