How to say “subject” 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.
- Arabic موضوع topic, subject, theme #774
- Bengali বিষয় subject, topic #1,551
- Bosnian tema theme, subject #2,367
- Bulgarian за on the subject of somebody/something, in… #8
- Croatian temu theme, subject #2,406
- Czech své one's own; belonging to the subject, of the… #176
- Danish forbandet cursed, subject to a curse #1,803
- Dutch wat what: e.g. asking for a subject complement;… #11
- English must To do as a requirement; indicates that the… #155
- Esperanto sia belonging to the subject of the sentence #192
- Estonian teema theme, subject, topic #1,231
- French sujet #561
- German thema topic, subject, issue #1,652
- Greek θέμα subject, main topic #324
- Hebrew אנחנו We; the subject form of the first-person… #24
- Hindi विषय subject, topic #1,542
- Indonesian terus of a direction relative to the subject,… #218
- Lithuanian tema theme; subject #1,265
- Macedonian тема theme, topic, subject #2,243
- Malay kebal exempt; not subject to #1,261
- Malayalam ആയിരുന്നു was or were; used to connect a subject to its… #83
- Persian موضوع subject, topic; theme; issue, matter #272
- Polish temat #681
- Portuguese assunto subject, topic, theme #763
- Romanian subiect #1,669
- Russian пусть let + subject + conjugated verb #391
- Serbian temu theme, subject #2,193
- Slovak subjekt #2,348
- Spanish él he, him, masculine personal third person… #52
- Tagalog ay Separates the subject and the predicate.… #12
- Tamil விஷயம் issue, matter, subject, topic, affair, deed,… #109
- Telugu విషయము an object, subject, matter, subject-matter,… #1,581
- Turkish konu topic, subject, issue #614
- Ukrainian хай let + subject + conjugated verb #429
- Urdu موضوع subject, topic, issue, matter, discussion #1,224
- Vietnamese môn subject, discipline #1,147
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.