How to say “aunt” in 37 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 Vietnamese, where cô is the 17th most used word.
- Afrikaans tante #345
- Albanian teze maternal aunt #2,243
- Basque izeba #589
- Bengali ফুফু a father's sister; an aunt #1,859
- Bosnian tetka aunt by blood; the sister of one’s parent #1,614
- Bulgarian леля #1,081
- Catalan tia #1,266
- Chinese 阿姨 maternal aunt #664
- Croatian teta aunt by blood; the sister of one’s parent #1,718
- Czech teta #2,126
- Danish tante #1,401
- Dutch tante #1,118
- Esperanto onklino #1,762
- Estonian tädi #922
- French tante #1,205
- Galician tía #865
- Georgian დეიდა aunt, maternal aunt, a sister of one's mother… #532
- German tante #1,128
- Hebrew דודה #1,079
- Hungarian néni aunt, Mrs #2,247
- Icelandic frænka an aunt #752
- Indonesian bibi #967
- Italian zia #1,314
- Korean 이모 maternal aunt #1,260
- Latvian tante #1,774
- Lithuanian teta #801
- Macedonian тетка #1,038
- Malayalam അമ്മായി #775
- Norwegian tante #1,412
- Persian خاله maternal aunt #1,176
- Portuguese tia #1,229
- Serbian tetka aunt by blood; the sister of one’s parent #1,428
- Slovak teta #741
- Slovenian teta #572
- Tamil அத்தை paternal aunt #1,483
- Turkish hala paternal aunt #160
- Vietnamese cô I/me, your paternal aunt #17
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.