How to say “somebody” in 36 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 Bulgarian, where за is the 8th most used word.
- Afrikaans iemand someone; somebody; anyone #127
- Albanian dikush someone, somebody #153
- Armenian մեկը someone, somebody #154
- Bengali কেহ someone; somebody #1,552
- Bosnian neko someone, somebody #156
- Bulgarian за on the subject of somebody/something, in… #8
- Catalan algú someone, somebody #128
- Chinese 某人 somebody; someone #671
- Croatian netko someone, somebody #156
- Czech někdo someone, somebody #122
- English bring To transport toward somebody/somewhere #313
- Estonian keegi someone, somebody #88
- Finnish joku someone, somebody #114
- German jemand someone, somebody #189
- Greek κάποιος someone, somebody #156
- Hebrew מישהו someone, somebody #97
- Hungarian valaki somebody, someone #114
- Indonesian perlihatkan to have somebody see something; to display #2,246
- Italian qualcuno someone, somebody #147
- Korean 누군가 somebody; someone #280
- Latvian līdzi used to indicate somebody move together with… #245
- Macedonian некого somebody, someone #373
- Norwegian noen somebody, someone; anybody, anyone #56
- Persian کسی someone, somebody #208
- Polish ktoś indeterminate personal pronoun; someone,… #117
- Portuguese alguém somebody; someone #125
- Romanian cineva someone, somebody #111
- Russian кто-то somebody, someone #215
- Serbian neko someone, somebody #133
- Slovak niekto someone, somebody #96
- Slovenian nekdo someone, somebody #129
- Spanish alguien someone, somebody #123
- Tamil ஒருவர் someone, somebody #422
- Telugu ఎవరో someone, somebody #237
- Turkish kimse somebody, anybody #149
- Ukrainian хтось somebody, someone #207
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.