How to say “strange” in 44 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 奇怪 is the 134th most used word.
- Afrikaans vreemd strange; odd #561
- Albanian çuditshme strange, odd, peculiar, weird #427
- Arabic غريب strange, peculiar, unusual #231
- Armenian տարօրինակ strange, weird, odd #301
- Bengali অদ্ভুত strange, queer, odd #355
- Bosnian čudan strange, weird, odd #1,591
- Bulgarian странен strange, odd #1,434
- Chinese 奇怪 odd; strange; surprising; unexpected #134
- Croatian čudan strange, weird, odd #1,421
- Czech divné strange, odd, surprising #973
- Danish mærkeligt weird, strange, odd #1,204
- Dutch vreemd strange, weird, odd #661
- English weird Having an unusually strange character or… #714
- Esperanto stranga strange, odd, peculiar #601
- Estonian imelik strange, weird, odd #631
- Finnish outoa strange, weird #681
- French bizarre bizarre, odd, strange, funny #572
- Georgian უცხო #835
- German merkwürdig strange, odd #2,119
- Greek παράξενο strange, weird, odd, bizarre #854
- Hebrew מוזר strange, odd, bizarre, unusual, weird #308
- Hindi अजीब #462
- Hungarian furcsa strange, odd, peculiar, curious, weird,… #541
- Indonesian aneh strange, weird, odd, unusual #280
- Italian strano strange, odd, dodgy #502
- Korean 이상한 strange, abnormal #299
- Latvian dīvaini strange, odd, strangely, oddly; adverbial… #639
- Lithuanian keistas strange, odd, peculiar #772
- Macedonian чуден strange, peculiar, weird, odd, unusual #1,152
- Malay pelik #422
- Malayalam വിചിത്രം weird, uncanny, strange #750
- Norwegian rart #581
- Persian عجیب #1,071
- Polish dziwne strange, odd, weird #587
- Portuguese estranho odd; strange #493
- Romanian ciudat strange, unusual, weird #385
- Russian странно strangely, strange, funnily, curiously,… #567
- Serbian čudan strange, weird, odd #1,370
- Slovak divný strange, odd, surprising #1,143
- Spanish extraño strange, unusual, odd, weird, bizarre,… #641
- Swedish konstig weird, strange #1,640
- Turkish tuhaf #485
- Urdu عجیب #345
- Vietnamese lạ strange; unfamiliar #580
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.