How to say “want” 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 不要 is the 11th most used word.
- Afrikaans wil to want #39
- Albanian dua to want #52
- Arabic أراد to want, will #569
- Armenian կարիք necessity, need, want #404
- Bengali চাই to want #66
- Bosnian neće to wish, want, desire #136
- Bulgarian искам to want, to wish, to would like #55
- Catalan vull to want #78
- Chinese 不要 to not want #11
- Croatian neće to wish, want, desire #122
- Czech chci to want #96
- Danish vil to want to, be willing to #27
- Dutch wil to want, desire #49
- English hope To want to happen, with a sense of… #339
- Esperanto volas to wish, to want #40
- Estonian tahad to want #93
- Finnish haluan to want, desire, wish, crave #78
- French veux to want, wish, desire #66
- Galician quero to desire; to want #72
- Georgian მინდა to want #56
- German will to want; to wish; to desire; to demand #79
- Greek θέλω to want, desire, will #60
- Hebrew רוצה To want #25
- Hindi चाहिए to want, desire #70
- Hungarian akarsz to want #136
- Icelandic vildi to want #128
- Indonesian inginkan to want #326
- Italian voglio to want #79
- Korean 싶다 to be desirous of, to want #778
- Latvian gribu to want #101
- Lithuanian nori to want #61
- Macedonian сакам to want, desire #48
- Malay mahu to want, to desire #62
- Malayalam വേണ്ട don't want #32
- Norwegian vil to want to, be willing to #27
- Persian نیاز need, necessity, want, requirement, neediness #389
- Polish chcę to want #71
- Portuguese quero to want; to wish; to desire #71
- Romanian vreau to want #66
- Serbian neće to wish, want, desire #122
- Slovak chcem to want #74
- Slovenian hotel to want #115
- Spanish quiero to desire, to want, to want to #67
- Swedish vill to want, desire #34
- Tagalog gusto want; like; desire #30
- Tamil தேவை need, necessity, want, exigency #140
- Telugu అక్రమము want of order #1,277
- Turkish istiyorum to want, desire, wish #71
- Vietnamese muốn to want #44
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.