How to say “service” in 38 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 עבודה is the 217th most used word.
- Afrikaans diens #611
- Albanian shërbim #1,466
- Arabic خدمة service, favour #654
- Basque zerbitzu #866
- Bengali সেবা service, waiting upon #955
- Bosnian služba #2,272
- Catalan servei #750
- Chinese 特工 secret service #586
- Croatian služba #2,372
- Danish tjeneste duty, service #695
- Dutch dienst #782
- English office A ceremonial duty or service, particularly #486
- Esperanto servo #1,197
- Finnish palveluksen #1,831
- Galician servizo #746
- Greek υπηρεσία #1,084
- Hebrew עבודה worship, service #217
- Hindi नौकरी job, employment, service #470
- Indonesian layanan #1,769
- Italian servizio service, serve #896
- Korean 근무 work, duty, service #1,149
- Latvian dienesta service, duty #1,837
- Macedonian служба #937
- Malay jabatan office, service #971
- Malayalam സേവനം #896
- Norwegian tjeneste #735
- Persian خدمت #670
- Portuguese serviço #804
- Romanian slujbă divine service #998
- Serbian služba #2,363
- Slovak služba #1,279
- Slovenian služba #492
- Spanish servicio #837
- Tamil சேவை #460
- Telugu సేవ #551
- Turkish servis #1,394
- Ukrainian служба #2,380
- Urdu خدمت #437
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.