How to say “beautiful” in 46 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.
- прекрасный[prʲɪˈkrasnɨj] Russian
- جميل/d͡ʒa.miːl/ Arabic
- सुंदर/sʊn.d̪əɾ/ Hindi
- όμορφη/ˈo.moɾ.fi/ Greek
- ლამაზი[ɫämäzi] Georgian
- সুন্দর/ʃund̪ɔɾ/ Bengali
“beautiful” in German: schöne · Portuguese: linda · Russian: прекрасный · Arabic: جميل · Hindi: सुंदर · Turkish: güzel · Greek: όμορφη
It is commonest in Turkish, where güzel is the 54th most used word.
Beautiful in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans mooi/ˈmoːi̯ ~ muə̯j/ beautiful, pretty #116
- Albanian bukur/ˈbu.kuɾ/ #106
- Arabic جميل/d͡ʒa.miːl/ #192
- Armenian չքնաղ/t͡ʃʰəkʰˈnɑʁ/ very beautiful, marvelous, ravishing #235
- Basque ederra/eˈðeˌra/ beautiful, pretty, handsome #159
- Bengali সুন্দর/ʃund̪ɔɾ/ beautiful, pretty #147
- Bulgarian красив[krɐˈsif] beautiful, lovely, fair, well-favoured,… #1,247
- Catalan maca[ˈma.kə] beautiful, pretty #1,060
- Chinese 漂亮/pʰi̯ɑʊ̯⁵¹ li̯ɑŋ¹/ pretty; beautiful; handsome #110
- Czech krásná[ˈkraːsnaː] #1,017
- Danish smuk/smok/ beautiful, handsome, good-looking #530
- Dutch mooi/moːi̯/ beautiful, pretty, handsome #236
- Esperanto bela/ˈbela/ beautiful, pretty #211
- Estonian ilus/ˈilus/ beautiful, pretty #373
- Finnish kaunis/ˈkɑu̯nis/ beautiful, pretty, fair #439
- Galician fermosa/fɪɾˈmɔsɐ/ #835
- Georgian ლამაზი[ɫämäzi] beautiful, handsome #197
- German schöne/ˈʃøːnə/ beautiful, lovely, pretty, handsome #817
- Greek όμορφη/ˈo.moɾ.fi/ beautiful, pretty, handsome #547
- Hindi सुंदर/sʊn.d̪əɾ/ beautiful, pretty; good-looking, handsome #297
- Hungarian szép[ˈseːp] #159
- Icelandic fallegt/ˈfatlɛxt/ beautiful, pretty, pulchritudinous #358
- Indonesian cantik/ˈt͡ʃantik/ pretty, beautiful #349
- Korean 예쁜[je̞p͈ɯn] to be pretty, lovely, beautiful, comely #491
- Latvian skaista/ˈskaista/ #522
- Lithuanian graži[ɡrɐˈʒʲɪ] #352
- Macedonian убава[ˈubava] beautiful, pretty #377
- Malay cantik/ˈt͡ʃantek/ beautiful, good-looking, pretty #283
- Malayalam മനോഹരമായ/mɐnoːhɐɾɐmaːjɐ/ #404
- Norwegian vakker[¹ʋɑkːəɾ] #656
- Persian خوشگل[xoʃ.ɡʲel̥] beautiful, handsome, good-looking #630
- Polish piękna/ˈpjɛŋk.na/ #884
- Portuguese linda/ˈlĩ.dɐ/ beautiful; gorgeous #678
- Romanian frumoasă[fruˈmo̯asə] #490
- Russian прекрасный[prʲɪˈkrasnɨj] #1,550
- Slovak krásne/ˈkraːsnɛ/ #536
- Slovenian lep/léːp/ beautiful; handsome #299
- Spanish hermosa/eɾˈmosa/ gorgeous, beautiful, handsome, lovely #850
- Swedish vacker/ˈvak.kɛr/ #581
- Tagalog maganda/maɡanˈda/ #138
- Tamil அழகிய/ɐɻɐɡɪjɐ/ beautiful, lovely, charming #1,363
- Telugu అందగత్తె/an̪d̪aɡat̪ːe/ beautiful female #1,455
- Turkish güzel/ɟyˈzel/ #54
- Ukrainian гарний[ˈɦarnei̯] beautiful, pretty, handsome #677
- Urdu خوبصورت/xuːb.suː.ɾət̪/ #214
- Vietnamese đẹp[ʔɗɛp̚˧˨ʔ] #272
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 Bengali (google (bn_BD), CC BY-SA 4.0), Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), CC BY-SA 4.0), Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 4.0), Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0) and Vietnamese (vais1000 (vi_VN), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.