Beautiful

is the most common word translated to English with Google

when looking only at nouns and their adjectives
A collaboration between
Google News Lab
and
Visual Cinnamon

How much does the translation behavior of a language indicate about its culture? Do German speakers seek the same words translated as the Spanish? To investigate, we've analyzed all the single word translations of nouns1 & adjectives2 into English delivered through Google Translate for 10 of the most popular languages on Google.

We find that, for example, the most common noun translated from Russian into English is mama, while for French the translation of bien is very popular. Scroll down to learn more about these and other languages; from the 10 most popular words to the similarities between them.

1 e.g. house, dog, place
2 e.g. easy, intelligent, adorable

The most translated nouns or adjectives per language

Let's start by focusing on the most translated word for 10 different languages first. There are some rather odd ones that you wouldn't have guessed, such as colleague in Dutch. Even more strange is the fact that it's almost the same word in Dutch: collega, just missing a u and e. Maybe knowing where to place all those vowels compared to the simpler Dutch version makes it difficult ;)

Wonderfully, 6 out of the 10 languages have a positive vibe going on, with 3 of them wanting to know the translation for good while the most often translated word across all languages is beautiful, or, as they say in German, schon

Connecting all the languages together is a string of the top translated words across all languages, starting with beautiful at the top before going through several days of the week and on. The general trend remains a positive one, with love, great & happy placed very high.

Hover over or click onTab a language "circle" to see the worldwide search interest & related topics of the English word between 2012 and 2016

The most often translated word into English for each language
Tab a language circle to see the word's trends
collegacolleagueDutchbongoodFrenchschönbeautifulGermanbuonogoodItalian作業workJapaneseczwartekthursdayPolishboagoodPortugueseмамаmamaRussianbonitobeautifulSpanishgüzelbeautifulTurkish1 beautiful  thursday  tuesday  wednesday  good  address  place  little  saturday  10 white  love  request  english  great  happy  friday  answer  business  city  20 sunday  teacher  school  brother  monday  language  autumn  summary  job  man  30 available  quantity  street  description  time  big  dog  work  daughter  fast  40 company  name  chair  house  proposal  well  confirmation  kitchen  children  order  50 friend  development  table  country  home  width  first name  holiday  regards  reply  60 decision  important  girl  life  bad  right  aunt  bed  father  offer  70 sorry  nothing  summer  target  power  colleague  height  price  small  christmas  80 car  search  invoice  shirt  heart  amount  people  sad  day  kind  90 family  responsible  water  translator  son  month  tree  inquiry  expensive  error  100 high     1 beautiful  thursday  tuesday  wednesday  good  address  place  little  saturday  10 white  love  request  english  great  happy  friday  answer  business  city  20 sunday  teacher  school  brother  monday  language  autumn  summary  job  man  30 available  quantity  street  description  time  big  dog  work  daughter  fast  40 company  name  chair  house  proposal  well  confirmation  kitchen  children  order  50 friend  development  table  country  home  width  first name  holiday  regards  reply  60 decision  important  girl  life  bad  right  aunt  bed  father  offer  70 sorry  nothing  summer  target  power  colleague  height  price  small  christmas  80 car  search  invoice  shirt  heart  amount  people  sad  day  kind  90 family  responsible  water  translator  son  month  tree  inquiry  expensive  error  100 high  the most often translated words across all languages
×
colleague
worldwide search interest
worldwide related queries & topics
The top 10 per language

Translations for you, hello and thank you into English are three of the most requested words in any language, which isn't unexpected. By focusing on the nouns & adjectives instead, we can get a glimpse into how different non-native English speakers use this language in their everyday lives.

Diving a bit deeper, we're now focusing on the 10 most translated words per language, which reveal even more interesting differences between the languages. The days of the week are quite popular, especially in Spanish & Italian. And for French, monsiNZD is on 6th place, which Google translates to gentleman, quite fitting for their culture.

Click onTab a mini language circle further below to see it rotate into place in the big circle, thereby revealing its top 10.

The top 10 words that are translated from all 10 languages combined into English
  beautiful  beautiful  beautiful    beautiful    beautiful    beautiful    beautiful    beautiful    beautiful    beautiful    beautiful    beautiful    beautiful    beautiful    beautiful    beautiful    beautiful    beautiful    beautiful    beautiful    beautiful    beautiful    beautiful    beautiful    beautiful    beautiful    beautiful    beautiful    beautiful    beautiful    thursday  thursday  thursday    thursday    thursday    thursday    thursday    thursday    thursday    thursday    thursday    thursday    thursday    thursday    thursday    thursday    thursday    thursday    thursday    thursday    thursday    thursday    thursday    thursday    thursday    thursday    tuesday  tuesday  tuesday    tuesday    tuesday    tuesday    tuesday    tuesday    tuesday    tuesday    tuesday    tuesday    tuesday    tuesday    tuesday    tuesday    tuesday    tuesday    tuesday    tuesday    tuesday    tuesday    tuesday    tuesday    tuesday    tuesday    wednesday  wednesday  wednesday    wednesday    wednesday    wednesday    wednesday    wednesday    wednesday    wednesday    wednesday    wednesday    wednesday    wednesday    wednesday    wednesday    wednesday    wednesday    wednesday    wednesday    good  good  good    good    good    good    good    good    good    good    good    good    good    good    good    good    good    good    good    good    good    good    good    good    good    good    good    good    address  address  address    address    address    address    address    address    address    address    address    address    address    address    address    address    address    address    place  place  place    place    place    place    place    place    place    place    place    place    place    place    place    place    place    place    little  little  little    little    little    little    little    little    little    little    little    little    little    little    little    little    saturday  saturday  saturday    saturday    saturday    saturday    saturday    saturday    white  white  white    white    white    white    white    white  position12345678910 
Click onTab a different language to see its top 10
German  beautiful  beautiful beautiful beautiful beautiful beautiful beautiful   first name  first name first name first name first name first name   amount  amount amount amount amount amount   vacation  vacation vacation vacation vacation vacation   bill  bill bill bill bill bill bill bill bill   available  available available available available   offer  offer offer offer offer offer   decision  decision decision decision   mrs  mrs mrs mrs mrs   people  people people
Spanish  beautiful  beautiful beautiful beautiful beautiful beautiful beautiful   teacher  teacher teacher teacher teacher teacher teacher   english  english english english english english english   thursday  thursday thursday thursday thursday   wednesday  wednesday wednesday wednesday   place  place place place place place   good  good good good good good   love  love love love love love   spanish  spanish spanish spanish   school  school school
French  good  good good good good good good good good good good   first name  first name first name first name first name first name   east  east east east east east east east east east   beautiful  beautiful beautiful beautiful beautiful   name  name name name name name name   bad  bad bad bad bad bad bad bad   gentleman  gentleman gentleman gentleman   great  great great great great   power  power power power   french  french french
Italian  good  good good good good good good good good good good   thursday  thursday thursday thursday thursday thursday   wednesday  wednesday wednesday wednesday wednesday   tuesday  tuesday tuesday tuesday tuesday tuesday   beautiful  beautiful beautiful beautiful beautiful   answer  answer answer answer answer   availability  availability availability availability   thing  thing thing thing thing   right  right right right   best wishes  best wishes best wishes
Japanese  work  work work work work work work work work work   confirmation  confirmation confirmation confirmation confirmation   decision  decision decision decision decision decision   request  request request request request request   japanese  japanese japanese japanese japanese   document  document document document   content  content content content content   translation  translation translation   friend  friend friend friend   japan  japan japan
Dutch  colleague  colleague colleague colleague colleague colleague colleague   nice  nice nice nice nice nice nice nice nice nice nice   clear  clear clear clear clear clear clear clear clear   explanation  explanation explanation explanation explanation   happy  happy happy happy happy happy   beautiful  beautiful beautiful beautiful beautiful   appendix  appendix appendix appendix   opportunity  opportunity opportunity   education  education education   command  command command
Polish  thursday  thursday thursday thursday thursday thursday thursday   tuesday  tuesday tuesday tuesday tuesday tuesday tuesday   request  request request request request request request   little  little little little little little little little   order  order order order order order order   poland  poland poland poland poland   wednesday  wednesday wednesday wednesday   offer  offer offer offer offer   name  name name name   reply  reply reply reply
Portuguese  good  good good good good good good good good good good   love  love love love love love love love love love love   right  right right right right right right right right   teacher  teacher teacher teacher teacher teacher   cool  cool cool cool cool cool cool cool cool   excuse  excuse excuse excuse excuse excuse   beautiful  beautiful beautiful beautiful   summary  summary summary summary   father  father father father   chicken  chicken chicken
Russian  mama  mama mama mama mama mama mama mama mama   thursday  thursday thursday thursday thursday thursday   russia  russia russia russia russia russia russia   house  house house house house house house   dinner  dinner dinner dinner dinner dinner   little  little little little little little little   quantity  quantity quantity quantity   wednesday  wednesday wednesday   tuesday  tuesday tuesday tuesday   love  love love love
Turkish  beautiful  beautiful beautiful beautiful beautiful beautiful beautiful   darling  darling darling darling darling darling darling   turkey  turkey turkey turkey turkey turkey turkey   good  good good good good good good good   dear  dear dear dear dear dear dear dear   piece  piece piece piece piece piece piece   turkish  turkish turkish turkish turkish   fantastic  fantastic fantastic fantastic   idiot  idiot idiot idiot   moon  moon moon moon
Similarity between Languages

Now that we've read some of the most translated words for different languages and seen that they can be quite different, what about their similarities? For example, the Spanish top 10 has four words in common with both Portuguese and Italian (although perhaps not surprising since the languages are similar). Russian, on the other hand, is most similar to Polish. While Japanese is quite dissimilar from all others; no word from the Japanese top 10 is even present in the overall top 10.

In the network below each word from the top 10 that is similar between two languages is represented by a line. Click onTab a word to move it to the center which reveals all the words that language has in common with all others.

The similarities between the top 10 words per language
Click onTab an outside circle to move it to the center
beautifulbeautifulthursdaywednesdayplacegoodgoodbeautifulgoodthursdaywednesdaytuesdaybeautifulbeautifulthursdaytuesdaylittlewednesdaygoodbeautifulthursdaylittlewednesdaytuesdaybeautifulgoodGermanAll languagesSpanishFrenchItalianJapaneseDutchPolishPortugueseTurkishRussian