How to say “shame” in 37 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 Korean, where 미안 is the 247th most used word.
- Afrikaans skande disgrace, shame #633
- Albanian marre #775
- Armenian ամոթ #302
- Basque lotsa #596
- Bosnian sramota shame, disgrace #1,487
- Bulgarian срам shame, disgrace #1,528
- Catalan vergonya #1,002
- Chinese 羞辱 humiliation; shame #1,551
- Croatian sramota shame, disgrace #1,864
- Czech škoda pity, shame #1,046
- English ashamed Feeling shame or guilt #2,000
- Esperanto fi For shame! #1,875
- Estonian häbi #994
- French honte #1,006
- Galician vergoña #984
- Georgian სირცხვილი shame, blemish, disgrace, opprobrium,… #636
- Greek κρίμα Indicates pity or shame #883
- Hebrew בושה #1,671
- Hindi शर्म #1,119
- Icelandic skömm #1,547
- Italian vergogna shame, disgrace, discredit, scandal #2,457
- Korean 미안 shame; being sorry #247
- Latvian kauns shame act, action #1,635
- Lithuanian gėda #616
- Macedonian срам shame, embarrassment #1,423
- Malayalam നാണക്കേട് insult, shame #885
- Norwegian fy phew, shame; interjection expressing… #1,260
- Persian خجالت embarrassment; shame; bashfulness; shyness #858
- Portuguese vergonha #1,382
- Serbian sramota shame, disgrace #1,405
- Slovak škoda pity, shame #624
- Spanish vergüenza #1,644
- Swedish fy shame, phew, fie; interjection expressing… #2,104
- Tagalog kahihiyan shame; embarrassment; humiliation; loss of… #1,261
- Tamil அசிங்கம் shame, obscenity #975
- Turkish yazık pity, shame, regret #764
- Urdu شرم #733
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.