House, Food, Money: Everyday Words in 50+ Languages

House is maison in French, σπίτι in Greek, 집 in Korean and bahay in Tagalog. Kitchen is cocina in Spanish, Küche in German and रसोई in Hindi, and money is dinero in Spanish, деньги in Russian and para in Turkish. Below are 12 everyday words, from house and kitchen to money, work and time, across all 52 languages on the site besides English and more than a dozen scripts.

Every word comes from real usage data, not a phrasebook, and each section links to the full list on our free Say it in any language tool.

#Where these words come from

Each /tools/say page lists an English word in up to 53 languages. The words are ranked by how often they appear in film and TV subtitles (the OpenSubtitles 2018 frequency lists) and matched to English through Wiktionary, so every page shows where the word ranks in its language.

Two things to know:

• Frequency lists count spellings, not meanings. If a word for “time” is spelled like the everyday word for “now” or “about”, it ranks very high for the wrong reason. We only print rows whose meaning matches, and we say where a page’s “most common” claim is one of these.
• The lists keep the form people used. Some rows are plurals or case forms, such as “at home” or “in the kitchen”, and we mark those. We capitalize German nouns (Küche, Geld).

These are the most common real matches on four of the pages. Kitchen is at the other end: its most common row is Afrikaans kombuis, at #708.

#House in different languages

Persian خونه (#56), the spoken form of the word, is the most common, then Vietnamese nhà (#86) and Greek σπίτι and Urdu گھر (both #94). Hindi घर and Urdu گھر are one word in two scripts.

The Spanish row on the full page is pared, “wall”, and Spanish has no “house” row at all. Other rows come from phrases: Arabic عند (“at the house of”, so “at”), Estonian ilma (“on the house”, free; it also means “without”), and Dutch kerk, Indonesian gereja and English “church”, all a “house of worship”. Latvian mājās and Lithuanian namuose are glossed “house” but mean “at home”, and Tamil வீட்டில் means “in the house”.

See “house” in all 50 languages →

#Home in different languages

Icelandic heim (#117) is the most common, just ahead of Malay rumah (#119), which is also the word for house. Chinese 回家 ranks higher still (#80), but it is a verb, “to go home”, like Indonesian pulang and Tagalog umuwi.

Many languages have no single word for “home”. Greek σπίτι, Hindi घर, Korean 집, Vietnamese nhà, Malayalam വീട് and Urdu گھر are on both the house and home pages. Others split it by direction: you are doma (at home) in Czech, but you go домой (homeward) in Russian. The noun, like Spanish hogar (#1130) and Portuguese lar (#1853), is rare in speech.

Skip the Italian row (nazionale, as in a home team), the Arabic one and the Telugu one, which means “lodging”.

See “home” in all 44 languages →

#Kitchen in different languages

Kitchen is one of the rarest words here: every row ranks past #700. Afrikaans kombuis (#708) is the most common, then Galician cociña (#894), Telugu వంటగది (#913) and French cuisine (#959). Kombuis comes from a Dutch word for a ship’s galley.

Most European words go back to Latin coquina, from “to cook”: cocina, cucina, cuisine, Küche, keuken, kuchyně and, through Spanish, Tagalog kusina. English “kitchen” is part of the same family. Other languages build the word from what happens there: Icelandic eldhús is “fire house”, and Bengali রান্নাঘর, Telugu వంటగది and Tamil சமையலறை all combine “cooking” with “room” or “house”. The only false match is the English row, “chef”.

See “kitchen” in all 35 languages →

#Food in different languages

Malayalam ഭക്ഷണം (#120) is the most common. Basque jan is listed next (#205), but jan is mostly the verb “to eat”. Tagalog pagkain (#212) and Tamil உணவு (#217) are the next real matches.

In many languages, food is simply “what you eat”: Indonesian makanan comes from makan (eat), Tagalog pagkain from kain, Turkish yemeği from yemek, and Hindi खाने is a form of खाना, which means both “food” and “to eat”. Swedish and Norwegian mat is related to English “meat”, which once meant food in general.

Spanish has no “food” row. The German one is kochen (“to cook”), the Telugu one means “hunger”, and the Vietnamese row, thức, is best known as “awake”.

See “food” in all 50 languages →

#Bread in different languages

Bread has the fewest languages of the 12 (33) and is rare in film dialogue. Galician pan (#691) and Urdu روٹی (#748) are the most common. Roti turns up in Urdu, Malayalam, Tamil, Indonesian and Malay, and the Latin panis family runs from pan to pâine. Hebrew לחם is the “lehem” in Bethlehem, “house of bread”.

Two rows are not bread. French fric is slang for money, just as English “bread” can be. Swedish bröt is the past tense of “to break”, spelled one letter away from the real word.

See “bread” in all 33 languages →

#Money in different languages

Money is common everywhere. Telugu డబ్బు (#62) leads, then Malayalam പണം (#78) and Tamil பணம் (#83), one word in two scripts, and Persian پول (#113). Spanish dinero, Portuguese dinheiro and Catalan diners all go back to the Roman coin, the denarius. Turkish para and Bulgarian пари are the same word, and so are Indonesian uang and Malay wang.

French has no row here; the French word on the tool is fric, on the bread page. Skip the Chinese, Georgian and Urdu rows, which mean “a sum”, government aid and a deposit.

See “money” in all 48 languages →

#Work in different languages

Chinese 工作 (#21) is the most common word in this post, and more than half the rows on its page rank in the top 200. Bengali কাজ (#51), Tamil வேலை (#52) and Telugu పని (#56) follow. Hindi काम and Urdu کام are one word, and Tagalog trabaho comes from Spanish trabajo.

English “robot” comes from Czech robota, “forced labor”, a relative of Russian работа. The Czech row here, práci, is a form of the everyday word for work. The only real false matches are the English row (“rest”) and the Swedish one, göra, which means “to do”.

See “work” in all 52 languages →

#Time in different languages

Turkish zaman (#37) is the most common, then Tamil நேரம் (#55), Korean 때 (#60) and Malayalam സമയം (#67). The page lists Hindi बारे at #62, but in practice that word is almost always “about”, as in के बारे में.

English has two kinds of “time”: how much time you have, and how many times you did something. Most languages split them. Spanish vez, Hebrew פעם and Estonian korda are the second kind, “one time”, and they rank high too: vez is #71 and פעם #86.

This is the page with the most false matches: 27 of its 53 rows are words like “now”, “then”, “never”, “always”, “day” and “year”, or small words like Catalan a (#6). They are real words, just not “time”.

See “time” in all 53 languages →

#City in different languages

Urdu شہر (#163) and Persian شهر (#173) lead, and they are one word, which also appears as Hindi शहर, Bengali শহর and Turkish şehir. Greek πόλη is the root of English words like “metropolis” and “politics”. Ukrainian місто, Polish miasta and Czech města share one word, while Russian город and Serbian grad share another.

The Korean row is 서울, Seoul, glossed “capital; large city”, and the Tamil and Telugu rows mean “capital city”. The English row comes from Susa, an ancient city, and the Armenian one means “neighborhood”.

See “city” in all 50 languages →

#School in different languages

Telugu పాఠశాల (#176) is the most common, then Persian مدرسه (#294) and Malay sekolah (#307). Most European words here come from Latin schola, borrowed from Greek, and Malay sekolah belongs to the same family. Hindi स्कूल, Bengali স্কুল and Urdu اسکول are borrowed from English. Arabic مدرسة and Persian مدرسه gave English “madrasa”.

Some languages build the word themselves. Bulgarian училище comes from the verb “to learn”, Esperanto lernejo is “learning place”, and Turkish okul comes from okumak, “to read, to study”. The Chinese and Romanian rows mean “high school” and “secondary school”.

See “school” in all 47 languages →

#Book in different languages

Hebrew ספר (#321) is the most common, then Persian کتاب (#367) and Malayalam പുസ്തകം (#378). Arabic كتاب traveled furthest: it is also Persian and Urdu کتاب, Hindi किताब and Turkish kitap. Greek βιβλίο is where English gets “Bible” and “bibliography”, and Malayalam പുസ്തകം and Tamil புத்தகம் are one word.

The page is clean. The only rows to skip are the Dutch one, glossed as the verb “to book”, and Malay kitab, which is glossed “book” but is usually used for religious or classical texts.

See “book” in all 48 languages →

#Car in different languages

Slovenian avto (#168) is the most common, then Malay kereta (#179) and Urdu گاڑی (#223). Three patterns cover most of the list. Auto is short for automobile. Russian машина, Persian ماشین, Albanian makinë and Romanian mașină are the word for “machine”. And Greek αυτοκίνητο, Polish samochód and Korean 자동차 are all built as “self-moving” vehicles.

Indonesian and Malay are close, but not here: Malaysians say kereta for a car, while in Indonesian kereta is usually a train and a car is a mobil. Skip the Tamil row (a chariot) and the Vietnamese one (a railway car).

See “car” in all 47 languages →

#Mix-ups to watch for

Frequency data is honest about what people say, but it can’t tell a house from a wall. The ones worth knowing:

• Small words. Most false matches on the time page are words like “now”, “then” and “never”, and Hindi बारे (“about”).
• Phrases. “On the house” (Estonian ilma), “at the house of” (Arabic عند) and “house of worship” (church) put rows on the house page.
• Near spellings. Swedish bröt (broke) on the bread page and Dutch boek (to book) on the book page.
• Slang. French fric is money, not bread.
• Place forms. Many rows mean “at home”, “in the house” or “in the kitchen” rather than the plain noun.

If you’re reading a new script to check a word like this, the Persian, Hindi, Tamil and Korean alphabet pages show every letter.

#More everyday words on the tool

Door has its own full page, with Telugu తలుపు, Slovenian vrata and Tagalog pinto at the top. Water and friend have full sections in basic words in different languages.

#Learn everyday words by talking about your day

Everyday words are the ones you need first, because they are what you talk about: where you live, what you ate, how work went. They are also the easiest language exchange conversation topics.

• Describe your home. How many rooms, what the kitchen looks like, what you can see from the window.
• Talk about food. What you cooked today and what people eat for breakfast where you live. Food questions are ones every partner can answer.
• Compare your days. When you start work or school, how long it takes, what you do after. You’ll use work, time, school and car in one message.

On LangX, you’re matched with people who speak the language you’re learning and are learning yours. Send a photo of your dinner and a few sentences about it; if you get a word wrong, your partner can hold your message to correct it. Corrections are unlimited on every plan, and translation is built into the chat. The free plan gives you five new conversations a day, with replies unlimited. You can get the app here, or read how to find a language exchange partner first.

9:41

Lucía M. Online

Today

Hold any message to correct it — corrections are the most useful thing you can send.

¿Cómo fue tu fin de semana? Cuéntame en inglés si quieres. How was your weekend? Tell me in English if you like. 09:12

Fui a la playa con mi hermana. Hacía mucho calor y yo no llevé agua. 09:14 · Read

Correction from Lucía Hacía mucho calor y yo no llevé agua. Hacía mucho calor y no llevé agua. The «yo» isn't wrong, it just sounds emphatic — like you specifically forgot. 09:15

Message in Spanish…

For eye, hand and skin, see body words in different languages. For hello and thank you, see basic words; for mother and friend, family words; for happy and sad, emotion words. There are also nature words, animal words, color words, powerful words, words for strength, space words and fantasy words. To see which words come first in a language, try the most common words lists.

#FAQ

#How do you say “kitchen” in different languages?

Spanish cocina, French cuisine, Italian cucina, German Küche, Greek κουζίνα, Icelandic eldhús, Hindi रसोई, Korean 부엌, Indonesian dapur and Tagalog kusina. The kitchen page has 35 languages.

#How do you say “house” in different languages?

Italian casa, French maison, German Hause (as in zu Hause, at home), Greek σπίτι, Hebrew בית, Persian خونه, Hindi घर, Korean 집 and Tagalog bahay. The house page has 50 languages, but check it for false matches.

#How do you say “money” in different languages?

Spanish dinero, Italian soldi, German Geld, Russian деньги, Persian پول, Tamil பணம், Korean 돈, Indonesian uang and Turkish para. The money page has 48 languages.

#What is the difference between house and home in other languages?

Many languages don’t make the distinction with a noun. In this data, Greek, Hindi, Korean, Vietnamese, Malayalam and Urdu use the same word for both. Others have special forms for “at home” and “homeward”, like Czech doma and Russian домой.

#Which everyday word is the most common?

Chinese 工作 (work) ranks #21, the highest real match in this post. Turkish zaman (time) is #37 and Persian خونه (house) is #56.