How to say “beach” in 30 different 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.
- playa/ˈplaʝa/ Spanish
- 해변[ˈhɛ(ː)bjʌ̹n] Korean
- παραλία/pa.ɾaˈli.a/ Greek
- חוף/χof/ Hebrew
- கடற்கரை/kɐɖɐrkɐɾɐɪ̯/ Tamil
- തീരം/t̪iːɾɐm/ Malayalam
“beach” in Spanish: playa · French: plage · German: strand · Italian: spiaggia · Portuguese: praia · Korean: 해변 · Greek: παραλία
It is commonest in Telugu, where బీచ్ is the 346th most used word.
Beach in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans strand/strant/ #1,379
- Albanian plazh[plaʒ] #1,346
- Basque hondartza/hondart͡s̻a/ #1,280
- Catalan platja[ˈpla.d͡ʒə] #1,938
- Czech pláži[ˈplaːʒɪ] #2,162
- Danish stranden/ˈsdʁɑnˀən/ #1,692
- Dutch strand/strɑnt/ beach, strand #1,588
- Esperanto plaĝo/ˈplad͡ʒo/ #1,760
- Estonian randa/ˈrɑnd̥ɑ/ #1,970
- French plage/plaʒ/ #1,685
- Galician praia/ˈpɾaja/ #1,308
- German strand/ʃtʁant/ #1,813
- Greek παραλία/pa.ɾaˈli.a/ beach, seashore #1,439
- Hebrew חוף/χof/ beach, shore, coast #2,169
- Indonesian pantai/ˈpantai̯/ #935
- Italian spiaggia/ˈspjad.d͡ʒa/ #1,892
- Korean 해변[ˈhɛ(ː)bjʌ̹n] beach, seashore #2,335
- Macedonian плажа[ˈpɫaʒa] #1,773
- Malay pantai/ˈpantaj/ beach, coast #796
- Malayalam തീരം/t̪iːɾɐm/ #1,571
- Norwegian stranden/ˈstrɑndn̩/ a beach or shore #2,316
- Polish plaży/ˈpla.ʐɘ/ #2,398
- Portuguese praia/ˈpɾaj.ɐ/ #1,569
- Romanian plajă/ˈpla.ʒə/ #1,588
- Slovak pláž/plaːʃ/ #1,428
- Slovenian plaža/plàːʒa/ #1,925
- Spanish playa/ˈplaʝa/ #1,569
- Swedish stranden/ˈstrandɛn/ #1,543
- Tamil கடற்கரை/kɐɖɐrkɐɾɐɪ̯/ beach, shore #1,182
- Telugu బీచ్/ˈbiːc/ #346
The speaker reads the word in the voice the LangX app uses for that language — synthesised, not a recording of a native speaker, so treat it as a guide. A row without a button has no reading we are free to use, or none we trust, yet. Voices for Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), CC BY-SA 4.0), Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 4.0) and Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.