How to say “wrong” in 32 different 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.
- مخطئ/mux.tˤiʔ/ Arabic
- ভুল/bʱul/ Bengali
- தவறு/t̪ɐʋɐrɯ/ Tamil
- തെറ്റ്/t̪errɨ/ Malayalam
“wrong” in Italian: sbagliato · Arabic: مخطئ
It is commonest in Tamil, where தவறு is the 144th most used word.
Wrong in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans makeer/maˈkeːr/ to be amiss, to be wrong #961
- Albanian faji/faji/ misdeed, wrong; crime #555
- Arabic مخطئ/mux.tˤiʔ/ wrong; mistaken #1,230
- Armenian թյուր/tʰjuɾ/ false, wrong #1,817
- Bengali ভুল/bʱul/ wrong, incorrect #149
- Bosnian pogrešan/pǒɡreʃan/ wrong, incorrect #2,191
- Catalan equivocat[ə.ki.βuˈkat] to mistake, be wrong about, make a mistake #991
- Croatian pogrešan/pǒɡreʃan/ wrong, incorrect #2,441
- Danish forkert/fɔˈkeːˀrd/ wrongly, wrong, erroneously #525
- Dutch verkeerd/vər.ˈkeːrt/ #664
- Esperanto eraris/eˈraris/ to make a mistake, be wrong, err #1,406
- Finnish väärässä/ˈʋæːræsːæ/ wrong, in the wrong, incorrect #793
- Greek φταίω[ˈfteo] to be to blame, be at fault, be in the wrong #1,350
- Italian sbagliato/zbaʎˈʎa.to/ wrong, mistaken, erroneous, incorrect #671
- Latvian nepareizi/ˈnepareizi/ wrong, incorrect, improper, wrongly,… #924
- Lithuanian bloga[bloːˈɡɐ] bad, wrong #535
- Macedonian погрешен[ˈpɔɡrɛʃɛn] wrong, incorrect, erroneous #1,353
- Malayalam തെറ്റ്/t̪errɨ/ wrong, error #249
- Norwegian feil/fæɪl/ #198
- Persian غلط[qæ.lǽt̪ʰ] #1,549
- Polish skrzywdzić/ˈskʂɘv.d͡ʑit͡ɕ/ to wrong, to harm #2,032
- Portuguese errado/eˈʁa.du/ not correct; wrong; incorrect #524
- Romanian neregulă/neˈɾeɡuˌlə/ #1,300
- Serbian pogrešan/pǒɡreʃan/ wrong, incorrect #1,912
- Slovenian napačen/napáːt͡ʃən/ incorrect, wrong #935
- Spanish equivocado/ekiboˈkado/ mistaken, wrong #1,108
- Swedish fel/feːl/ wrong, wrongly, incorrectly, erroneously #151
- Tagalog mali/maˈliʔ/ #327
- Tamil தவறு/t̪ɐʋɐrɯ/ #144
- Ukrainian зла[zɫa] evil, wrong #1,560
- Urdu غلط/ɣə.lət̪/ #228
- Vietnamese bậy[ʔɓəj˧˨ʔ] morally wrong #2,064
The speaker reads the word in the voice the LangX app uses for that language — synthesised, not a recording of a native speaker, so treat it as a guide. A row without a button has no reading we are free to use, or none we trust, yet. Voices for Bengali (google (bn_BD), CC BY-SA 4.0), Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), CC BY-SA 4.0), Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0) and Vietnamese (vais1000 (vi_VN), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.