How to say “sad” 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 Finnish, where pahoillani is the 175th most used word.
- Arabic حزين sad, sorrowful #1,497
- Bengali দুঃখজনক sad, saddening, sorrowful, regrettable,… #1,417
- Bosnian tužna #2,451
- Bulgarian тъжен sad, sorrowful #2,397
- Catalan trist sad, unhappy #1,365
- Chinese 可悲 lamentable; sad; pathetic #1,240
- Croatian tužna #2,383
- Czech smutný #2,128
- Danish trist #1,312
- Dutch zielig sad, pitiful #2,408
- Estonian kurb #886
- Finnish pahoillani sorry; upset, sad #175
- French triste #948
- Galician triste sad, unhappy #710
- Hebrew עצוב Sad, unhappy: experiencing the emotion of… #886
- Hindi उदास sad, depressed #1,509
- Hungarian szomorú sad, sorrowful, mournful #1,046
- Icelandic dapur sad, dejected #2,253
- Indonesian sedih sad; unhappy; sorrowful #939
- Italian triste sad, unhappy, bleak #1,077
- Korean 슬퍼 to be sad #2,089
- Lithuanian liūdnas sad, downhearted, sorrowful #1,915
- Macedonian тажен #2,244
- Malay sedih sad; unhappy; sorrowful #842
- Norwegian trist #1,033
- Portuguese triste sad; unhappy; down #1,049
- Romanian trist #1,322
- Serbian tužna #2,171
- Slovak smutný #1,128
- Swedish ledsen #201
- Tagalog malungkot sad; lonely; sorrowful #1,129
- Turkish üzgün #955
- Urdu اداس sad, unhappy #2,212
- Vietnamese buồn #652
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.