How to say “understand” in 49 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 明白 is the 34th most used word.
- Albanian kuptoj to understand #209
- Arabic أفهم to make understand #232
- Armenian հասկանում to understand #243
- Basque ulertu to understand #243
- Bengali বোঝা to understand #594
- Bosnian shvatio to understand, comprehend, grasp, conceive #666
- Bulgarian разбирам to understand, to comprehend, to make out #210
- Catalan entenc to understand #315
- Chinese 明白 to understand; to know #34
- Croatian shvatio to understand, comprehend, grasp, conceive #647
- Czech chápu to understand #453
- Danish forstår to understand #194
- Dutch begrijp to understand, to comprehend, to grasp #323
- English mistake To understand wrongly, taking one thing or… #740
- Esperanto komprenas to understand, comprehend #158
- Estonian mõistma to understand #1,465
- Finnish ymmärrän to understand #354
- French comprends to understand, comprehend #290
- Galician entendo to understand #442
- Georgian გაიგებს to understand #1,365
- German kapiert to understand intellectually; to get; to grasp #1,825
- Greek καταλαβαίνω to understand, realise #286
- Hebrew הבין To understand, to have understanding, to be… #1,613
- Hindi जाना to know, comprehend, understand #113
- Hungarian érti to understand #582
- Indonesian dimengerti to understand #1,646
- Italian capito to understand #284
- Latvian saprotu to understand #338
- Lithuanian supratau to perceive, to get it; to understand #190
- Macedonian разбира to understand, comprehend #262
- Malay difahami to understand the meaning of something #1,929
- Malayalam മനസ്സിലാക്കുക to understand; find out #2,318
- Norwegian forstår to understand #201
- Persian بفهمم to understand #768
- Polish rozumiem to understand #207
- Portuguese entendo to understand, to grasp, to comprehend #701
- Romanian înțeleg to understand #2,330
- Russian понять to understand, to comprehend, to see #549
- Serbian shvatio to understand, comprehend, grasp, conceive #669
- Slovak nerozumiem I don't understand #508
- Slovenian razumeti to understand #483
- Spanish sé to know, to understand #55
- Swedish förstår to understand #160
- Tagalog intindihin to try to understand; to make an effort to… #1,721
- Tamil அறிவேன் to know, understand, recognize, perceive by… #1,405
- Turkish anlıyorum To understand, to comprehend, to get #358
- Ukrainian зрозуміти to grasp, to understand, to comprehend #771
- Urdu جاننا to know, comprehend, understand #384
- Vietnamese hiểu to understand, to know #158
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.