How to say “purpose” in 39 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 Latvian, where lai is the 27th most used word.
- Afrikaans funksie function, purpose #1,873
- Armenian մասնավոր deliberately, on purpose #730
- Basque nahita on purpose #812
- Bengali উদ্দেশ্য intent, purpose; goal #599
- Bosnian cilj aim, goal, purpose #1,206
- Bulgarian намерение intention, purpose, aim #1,826
- Chinese 作用 function; role; purpose #751
- Croatian cilj aim, goal, purpose #1,173
- Danish formål purpose, cause #1,999
- Dutch doel aim, purpose #858
- English holy Dedicated to a religious purpose or a god #1,019
- Esperanto celo goal, aim, purpose #537
- Estonian eesmärk purpose, aim, goal, objective, end #1,150
- Finnish jotta so that, in order that, for the purpose that #313
- Galician función function, purpose #2,320
- German wozu for what reason, to what purpose, what for,… #1,003
- Hebrew כדי in order: specifies a purpose #58
- Hindi उद्देश्य purpose, object, aim #1,453
- Icelandic viljandi deliberately, intentionally, on purpose #1,726
- Indonesian maksud #673
- Italian intenzione intention, intent, purpose, mind, wish #766
- Korean 일부러 deliberately, intentionally, on purpose #592
- Latvian lai with the conditional, indicating purpose,… #27
- Lithuanian tam for that purpose #175
- Macedonian намерно intentionally, on purpose #1,682
- Malay bagi for; for the purpose of #181
- Malayalam എന്തിന് why; for what purpose #132
- Portuguese propósito purpose; target; aim; goal #1,133
- Romanian scop #1,822
- Serbian cilj aim, goal, purpose #1,191
- Slovak účel #1,791
- Slovenian cilj goal, purpose #564
- Spanish propósito #1,401
- Swedish meningen a purpose, a point #1,280
- Tagalog balak plan; intention; purpose #1,216
- Tamil நோக்கம் objective, purpose, aim, goal, object,… #1,856
- Telugu కావాలని on purpose #509
- Turkish amacı purpose, aim, goal #1,782
- Urdu مطلب purpose, motive #116
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.