How to say “teacher” 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 Korean, where 선생님 is the 180th most used word.
- Afrikaans onderwyser #530
- Albanian mësues teacher, instructor #1,360
- Basque irakasle #574
- Bengali মাস্টার master, teacher #466
- Bosnian učitelj #2,076
- Bulgarian учител male teacher #1,388
- Catalan professor #743
- Chinese 老師 #1,247
- Croatian učitelj #1,996
- Czech učitel #1,994
- Dutch leraar a teacher, a person who gives lessons #2,031
- Esperanto instruisto #705
- Estonian õpetaja #914
- Finnish opettaja #2,166
- French professeur #896
- Galician profesor #1,052
- German lehrer to teach; to be a teacher #1,666
- Greek καθηγητής professor, university teacher, lecturer #1,764
- Hebrew מורה teacher, instructor, educator #1,151
- Hindi शिक्षक teacher, educator #2,020
- Hungarian tanár #1,854
- Icelandic kennari a teacher #1,260
- Indonesian guru teacher: a person who teaches, especially one… #468
- Italian maestro #1,327
- Korean 선생님 #180
- Latvian skolotājs #2,082
- Lithuanian mokytojas #1,023
- Macedonian учител #1,721
- Malay guru educator, teacher, instructor #530
- Malayalam മാഷ് #2,105
- Persian معلم #945
- Portuguese professor #847
- Russian учитель teacher, instructor #1,601
- Serbian učitelj #2,078
- Slovak učiteľ #856
- Slovenian učitelj #626
- Swedish lärare a teacher #1,442
- Tagalog guro teacher; educator; instructor #705
- Tamil ஆசிரியர் #617
- Telugu గురువు teacher, preceptor, master, superior, learned… #712
- Turkish öğretmen #1,723
- Ukrainian учитель teacher, instructor #1,867
- Urdu استاد professor; teacher, tutor #573
- Vietnamese thầy I/me, your male teacher #618
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.