How to say “bird” in 39 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.
- طائر/tˤaːʔir/ Arabic
- पक्षियों/pək.ʂɪ.jõː/ Hindi
- πουλί/puˈli/ Greek
- পাখি/pakʰi/ Bengali
- பறவை/pɐrɐʋɐɪ̯/ Tamil
- പക്ഷി/pɐkʂi/ Malayalam
“bird” in German: vogel · Italian: uccello · Arabic: طائر · Hindi: पक्षियों · Turkish: kuş · Greek: πουλί
It is commonest in Telugu, where పక్షులు is the 384th most used word.
Bird in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans voëls/ˈfuːəls/ A bird #800
- Albanian zog/zɔɡ/ #1,422
- Arabic طائر/tˤaːʔir/ #1,676
- Basque txori/t͡ʃoɾi/ #779
- Bengali পাখি/pakʰi/ #714
- Bosnian tiče/tîːt͡ʃeː/ #833
- Bulgarian птица[ˈptit͡sɐ] bird, fowl #2,081
- Croatian tiče/tîːt͡ʃeː/ #764
- Danish fugl/fuːˀl/ #2,042
- Dutch vogel/ˈvoːɣəl/ bird, any member of the class Aves #1,862
- Esperanto birdo/ˈbirdo/ #723
- Estonian lind/ˈlind̥/ #1,428
- French martin/maʁ.tɛ̃/ bird of either the starling family, or of the… #1,625
- Galician paxaro/paˈʃaɾo/ bird, specifically a passeriform bird #1,513
- German vogel/ˈfoːɡəl/ a bird #1,811
- Greek πουλί/puˈli/ #1,405
- Hebrew בחורה/baχuˈʁa/ girl, gal, bird - i.e: a particular woman,… #502
- Hindi पक्षियों/pək.ʂɪ.jõː/ #1,763
- Icelandic fugl[ˈfʏkl̥] #1,110
- Indonesian burung/ˈburuŋ/ #711
- Italian uccello/utˈt͡ʃɛl.lo/ #2,350
- Korean 탄[tʰan] a bird net used to catch birds #882
- Latvian putnu/ˈputnu/ #1,257
- Lithuanian paukštis[²ˈpɒʊˑkʃʲtʲɪs] bird Aves #1,054
- Macedonian птица[ˈptit͡sa] #1,388
- Malay burung/ˈburoŋ/ #553
- Malayalam പക്ഷി/pɐkʂi/ #735
- Norwegian fugl/fʉːl/ a bird #2,378
- Persian پرنده[pʰæ.ɹǽn̪.d̪e] #732
- Romanian martin/marˈtin/ bird of either the starling family, or of the… #1,289
- Serbian tiče/tîːt͡ʃeː/ #741
- Slovak vták/ˈftaːk/ #1,059
- Slovenian ptica/ptìːt͡sa/ #1,144
- Tagalog ibon/ˈʔibon/ #621
- Tamil பறவை/pɐrɐʋɐɪ̯/ #1,366
- Telugu పక్షులు/ˈpakʂulu/ #384
- Turkish kuş/kuʃ/ bird, fowl #1,155
- Urdu پرندہ/pə.ɾən.d̪ɑ(ː)/ #1,735
- Vietnamese chim[t͡ɕim˧˧] #876
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), 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.