How to say “sir” in 31 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 Chinese, where 先生 is the 9th most used word.
- Afrikaans meneer sir, mister; gentleman #139
- Bengali স্যার sir, master #56
- Bulgarian сър #165
- Chinese 先生 mister; sir; gentleman #9
- Dutch meneer sir, mister #255
- Esperanto sinjoro sir, mister #83
- Estonian härra sir, mister #249
- French monsieur mister, sir #195
- Galician don sir, mister #1,045
- Georgian ბატონო gentleman, mister, sir #834
- Greek σερ #1,653
- Hebrew אדוני sir, my lord #130
- Hindi श्री sir, lord, mister #220
- Indonesian pak #139
- Lithuanian ponas #304
- Macedonian господа mister, sir, Mr #415
- Malay tuan Sir, mister #74
- Malayalam സാർ #92
- Persian آقا Mr., Sir, Lord #303
- Polish pani Lord, Sir #73
- Portuguese sir #1,784
- Romanian domnule mister, Mr., sir, polite term for a man #153
- Russian сэр #154
- Spanish señor mister, sir, lord #107
- Swedish herre a man, a gentleman, a sir #805
- Tagalog don title of a gentleman: sir; Sir #658
- Tamil ஐயா #103
- Turkish efendim master, sir #104
- Ukrainian сер #208
- Urdu صاحب #119
- Vietnamese cụ you, Sir, Madam, Mr, Mrs #1,128
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.