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

https://twitter.com/mirriam71/status/1630868594811600897?s=20

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