Growing up in a Hinglish setting, I could make out so many words in Hindi which have no substitute in English. At least nothing that’d catch their essence perfectly. For example, Google says Jugaad in English would be something like makeshift or hack. But these two definitely don’t pass the desi vibe check.
Speaking of such ‘better in native language’ words, Merriam-Webster asked Twitter users from all around the world to share words with no English equivalent.
And the thread is full of interesting responses. Take a look.
1. ‘Tizita‘ – Amharic
2. ‘Na’iman‘ & ‘Sahtein‘ – Arabic
3. ‘Doznanie‘ – Polish
4. ‘Qti maz‘ – Armenian
5. ‘(haa) shagóon‘ – Tlingit
6. ‘Dharma‘ – Sanskrit
7. ‘Sisu‘ – Finnish
8. ‘Backpfeifengesicht‘ – German
9. ‘Trúno‘ – Icelandic
10. ‘Kalsarikännit‘ – Finnish
11. ‘Bjørnetjeneste‘ – Norwegian/Danish
12. ‘Ghodar dim‘ – Bengali
13. ‘Pedas‘ – Malay
14. ‘Saudade‘ – Portuguese
15. ‘Musafir‘ – Arabic
16. ‘Schadenfreude‘ – German
17. ‘Bahala na si Batman’ – Filipino
18. ‘Empalagar‘ – Spanish
Truth be told, I have experienced empalagar way too many times. But honestly, isn’t a thread like this what Twitter’s really for?
Read more: 21 Zabardast Hindi Words You Just Can’t Translate To English No Matter How Hard You Try
Top picks for you
