How to say “respect” 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 Tagalog, where po is the 85th most used word.
- Afrikaans respek #723
- Arabic احترام #2,213
- Armenian հարգանք respect, esteem #1,455
- Bengali সম্মান honour, respect #436
- Bosnian obzirom consideration, care, respect #1,178
- Bulgarian уважение respect, esteem #1,171
- Catalan respecte #885
- Chinese 尊重 to respect; to hold in high esteem #486
- Croatian obzirom consideration, care, respect #1,084
- Danish respekt #992
- Dutch hoezo in what way, in what respect #657
- Esperanto respekto #1,812
- Estonian au honour/honor, respect #676
- French respect #1,277
- Galician respecto #699
- German respekt respect, regard, reverence #1,395
- Greek εκτιμώ to appreciate, respect #1,172
- Hebrew לגבי About, regarding, in connection with, with… #236
- Hindi सम्मान respect, deference, honor #375
- Icelandic virtist to respect, to show respect #745
- Italian riguardo respect, connection, regard #774
- Lithuanian pagarba #1,143
- Macedonian почит #714
- Malayalam ബഹുമാനം #794
- Norwegian respekt #996
- Persian احترام respect, deference #535
- Polish szacunku #2,408
- Portuguese respeito #736
- Romanian respect respect, consideration, deference, esteem,… #1,063
- Serbian obzirom consideration, care, respect #1,146
- Slovak počesť honor, respect #2,277
- Spanish don a title of respect to a man, prefixed to… #862
- Swedish respekt #1,185
- Tagalog po marks respect toward the person the speaker… #85
- Tamil மதிப்பு #426
- Telugu మన్నించు to respect #619
- Turkish saygı respect, consideration, esteem #863
- Urdu احترام respect, honour #781
- Vietnamese tôn to revere, to respect, to honor #891
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.