How to say “reason” in 49 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 Hebrew, where למה is the 37th most used word.
- Albanian arsye #381
- Arabic عقل understanding, reason, wisdom, sound… #1,588
- Armenian պատճառով by reason of, because of #320
- Basque arrazoi cause, reason #226
- Bengali অযথা unnecessarily, without reason, in vain #1,761
- Bosnian zato so, therefore, for that/this reason, ergo #111
- Bulgarian причина cause, reason #447
- Catalan raó reason, motive #231
- Chinese 原因 cause; reason #131
- Croatian zato so, therefore, for that/this reason, ergo #119
- Czech důvod #502
- Danish grunden #1,464
- Dutch zomaar just because; for no reason, out of the blue #685
- English so As a result; for that reason; therefore;… #38
- Esperanto tial for that reason #334
- Estonian aru reason, mind #134
- Finnish mieltä mind, reason #446
- French raison #205
- Galician razón #291
- German warum why; for what reason #91
- Greek λογικό reason, mind #1,657
- Hebrew למה why, for what reason #37
- Hindi वजह reason, cause #510
- Hungarian azért for that reason, the reason is …, because #103
- Icelandic tilefni reason for doing a thing #1,705
- Indonesian kenapa why; for what reason #66
- Italian ragione reason, intellect #281
- Korean 왜냐하면 because; for the following reason #313
- Latvian kāpēc why? for what reason? for what purpose? #61
- Lithuanian kam why, for what reason, what's the reason #150
- Macedonian причина cause, reason #366
- Malay kenapa Why; for what reason #58
- Norwegian årsak a reason #1,906
- Persian واسه for, by reason of, for the sake of #57
- Polish powodu cause, reason #370
- Portuguese razão #248
- Romanian judecată judgement, reason, wisdom #1,498
- Serbian zato so, therefore, for that/this reason, ergo #107
- Slovak dôvod reason, cause, motive #290
- Slovenian zakaj why, for what reason #38
- Spanish razón #232
- Swedish anledning reason; cause #905
- Tagalog bakit why; for what reason #44
- Tamil காரணம் reason, ground #198
- Telugu కాబట్టి therefore, for that reason, consequently #75
- Turkish sebebi #630
- Ukrainian причина #657
- Urdu کارن cause, reason #1,437
- Vietnamese lẽ reason; rationale; argument #225
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.