How Do You Say…
English speakers are the first ones to admit that English is not the world’s most beautiful language.
Of course, that depends on who’s speaking it, but when you hear someone whisper French or Italian in your ear, or recite poetry in Urdu or Korean, you know that our guttural, Germanic language is not necessarily music to foreign ears.
But aside from accents and pronunciation, when it comes down to it, the most basic building blocks of languages are words. While it’s assumed that English has the largest vocabulary (around 1,025,110 and growing all the time), this list shows us some of the most beautiful and descriptive words in other languages that English is simply lacking.
Do you know that creepy feeling you get when you’re all alone in the woods? German has a word for that. How about that strange feeling of anticipation you get when you’re waiting for someone to arrive? Inuit has a word for that.
Source: flickr.com
Start the slideshow below and finally put a word to all those thoughts and feelings that English just doesn’t quite convey, then SHARE!
Comarea (Galician)
Source: freestockphotos.biz
This beautiful term from the coastal regions of Galicia, Spain is a compound word meaning “like the sand.” It’s used poetically in phrases such as “Quéroche comarea,” meaning “I love you like sand” – because sand is so vast and immeasurable.
Fernweh (German)
Source: pixabay.com
This deep German world represents the feeling of homesickness you might have for somewhere you’ve never been.
Iktsuarpok (Inuit)
Source: Instagram @waruibelmont
This Inuit word is used to describe the anxious feeling you get when you’re waiting for somebody to arrive.
Backpfeifengesicht (German)
Source: pixabay.com
I definitely see a lot of these each day… This typical German word roughly means “a face that’s badly in need of a fist/ slap.”
Pelinti (Buli)
Source: istock/ lisafx
Ever bite into something that ended up being too hot? This is the word for those excruciating moments when you’re moving the hot food around inside your mouth and roughly making an “ahhhgg” sound.
Pana Po’o (Hawaiian)
Source: flickr.com
I spend so much time doing this one. This is the action when you stand around scratching your head, wondering where you left something you’ve misplaced.
Ilunga (Luba-Kasai)
Source: Instagram @amstordahl
This word, pertaining to the Bantu languages of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, roughly translates to someone who always forgives after the first insult and tolerates it the second time but never the third. In 2004, it was voted by many linguists as the world’s most difficult word to translate.
Utepils (Norwegian)
Source: flickr.com
This word means to sit outside on a sunny day a drink beer. Whereas this might be an everyday reality for many countries, it goes to show that Norway has a special word for it because it must be so rare!
Waldeinsamkeit (German)
Source: Instagram @mrees10
This German word is for the eerie, isolated feeling you get when you’re in the woods.
Layogenic (Tagalog)
Source: wikipedia.org
This awesomely descriptive word from the Philippines is used for things that look great or attractive from far away but are actually quite messy or sad up close.
Pochemuchka (Russian)
Source: flickr.com
We certainly could use a word like this in English! It means a person who asks too many questions.
Komorebi (Japanese)
Source: flickr.com
One of my favorite words on the list, this is the word for the rays of light that filter through the leaves of the trees.
Mangata (Swedish)
Source: flickr.com
One of the loveliest words on this list, it means the “road” of light that the moon makes on the water.
Pisan zapra (Malay)
Source: commons.wikimedia.org
Simply put, “the time needed to eat a banana.”
Ya’aburnee (Arabic)
Source: Instagram @diego_barreca
This very emotional word is the hope someone has that they’ll die before their lover because they know how impossible life would be without them.