How to say “thief” in 39 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 Telugu, where దొంగ is the 476th most used word.
- Afrikaans dief A thief #1,158
- Albanian hajdut #1,267
- Arabic لص thief, robber #1,971
- Armenian գող #1,051
- Basque lapur #833
- Bengali চোর robber, thief, burglar #646
- Bosnian lopov thief, crook #1,878
- Bulgarian крадец #1,619
- Catalan lladre thief, burglar #1,565
- Chinese 小偷 thief; petty thief #949
- Croatian lopov thief, crook #1,955
- Czech zloděj #2,297
- Danish tyv #2,354
- Dutch dief a thief, one who steals #2,158
- Estonian varas #1,489
- French voleur robber, thief #2,003
- Galician ladrón thief; robber; rogue; crook #1,480
- German dieb #2,428
- Hindi चोर thief, robber, burglar #1,073
- Hungarian tolvaj #2,352
- Indonesian pencuri #1,129
- Italian ladro thief, lift #2,338
- Korean 도둑 #1,646
- Latvian zaglis #1,557
- Lithuanian vagis #1,168
- Macedonian крадец #1,470
- Malay pencuri #802
- Malayalam കള്ളൻ #1,927
- Persian دزد thief, burglar, robber, stealer #914
- Portuguese ladrão #2,051
- Serbian lopov thief, crook #1,828
- Slovak zlodej #1,046
- Slovenian tat #962
- Tagalog magnanakaw thief; robber #519
- Tamil திருடி #796
- Telugu దొంగ thief, robber #476
- Turkish hırsız thief, burglar #1,561
- Urdu چور #1,145
- Vietnamese trộm #811
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.