How to say “air” in 50 languages
Every one of these is a word that turns up in ordinary speech, not a dictionary curiosity — the number beside it is where it ranks in that language.
It is commonest in Tamil, where காற்று is the 249th most used word.
- Afrikaans lug #388
- Albanian ajër #856
- Arabic جو #289
- Basque aire #655
- Bengali বাতাস air, wind #704
- Bosnian zrak #1,386
- Bulgarian въздух #1,132
- Catalan aire #898
- Chinese 空中 aerial; in the air; in the sky #948
- Croatian zrak #1,004
- Czech vzduchu #1,284
- Danish luften #928
- Dutch land to land from the air #434
- English blow To produce an air current #926
- Esperanto aero #823
- Estonian õhku #635
- French volé to fly through the air #837
- Galician aire #736
- German luft air, atmosphere #695
- Greek αέρα #815
- Hebrew אוויר #871
- Hindi हवा air, wind, breeze #502
- Hungarian levegőt #1,661
- Icelandic loft #686
- Indonesian kapten an army or air force officer whose rank is… #436
- Italian aria #709
- Korean 바람 wind, air, draft #613
- Latvian gaisā #677
- Lithuanian oro #367
- Macedonian воздух #685
- Malay kapten An army or air force officer whose rank is… #361
- Malayalam വായു #626
- Norwegian luft #1,515
- Persian هوا #511
- Polish powietrze #1,949
- Portuguese ar #593
- Romanian aer #713
- Russian воздух #2,012
- Serbian vazduh #1,125
- Slovak vzduchu #672
- Slovenian zrak #433
- Spanish aire #732
- Swedish luften #1,314
- Tagalog ere #2,001
- Tamil காற்று wind, air #249
- Telugu వాయువు air, gas, wind #958
- Turkish uçan to fly, to travel through the air, another… #2,340
- Ukrainian повітря #1,144
- Urdu ہواؤں #1,538
- Vietnamese phơi to air out #2,223
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.