How to say “trouble” in 35 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 Bengali, where সমস্যা is the 143rd most used word.
- Albanian bela #1,568
- Arabic مأزق trouble, crisis, dilemma, stalemate, imbroglio #2,297
- Basque asaldatu to disturb, trouble, upset #1,966
- Bengali সমস্যা problem, difficulty, trouble #143
- Bosnian nevolja trouble, misfortune #2,247
- Bulgarian грижа trouble, bother, fuss, cumbrance #635
- Chinese 打擾 to disturb; to trouble; to bother; to… #1,992
- Croatian nevolja trouble, misfortune #2,294
- Czech trápí to trouble, to worry #2,272
- Danish generer to bother, trouble, disturb, annoy #2,349
- Esperanto problemo problem, trouble #422
- Estonian häda #1,112
- Finnish ongelma problem, trouble, issue #541
- Galician traballos travail, trouble, hardship, hard times,… #1,475
- Georgian ბალა misfortune, trouble #293
- Greek μπελάδες trouble, bother #1,684
- Hebrew רע An evil, trouble; something bad #248
- Hungarian baj trouble, matter, problem #147
- Icelandic vesen #2,006
- Indonesian ganggu to disturb; to trouble; to bother #2,038
- Italian preoccupare to worry, to trouble, to bother #1,442
- Korean 수고 effort, trouble #1,820
- Macedonian несреќа misfortune, trouble, disaster, mischief #747
- Malayalam കുഴപ്പം problem, trouble #205
- Norwegian bryr to bother, trouble #439
- Persian زحمت inconvenience, trouble #1,074
- Polish kłopoty #834
- Romanian necazuri trouble, distress #1,651
- Serbian nevolja trouble, misfortune #2,097
- Spanish preocupes to worry, to concern, to trouble, to be… #530
- Tagalog problema problem; trouble #172
- Tamil தொந்தரவு trouble, inconvenience, difficulty,… #893
- Telugu కలత trouble, perplexity #767
- Turkish bela affliction, trouble #1,743
- Urdu مصیبت trouble, distress #648
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.