How to say “black” in 51 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 Tagalog, where taong is the 178th most used word.
- Afrikaans swart #570
- Albanian zi in black #725
- Arabic حالك very dark or black, pitch-black, deep black,… #243
- Armenian սև #269
- Basque beltz #483
- Bengali কালো #399
- Bosnian crno #1,915
- Bulgarian черен #1,457
- Catalan negre #556
- Chinese 黑人 black person #556
- Croatian crno #1,963
- Czech černý #1,705
- Danish sorte #843
- Dutch zwarte #812
- English japan A hard black enamel varnish containing asphalt #2,348
- Esperanto nigra #780
- Estonian musta #969
- French noir black in colour #729
- Galician negro black, dark colored #436
- Georgian შავი #203
- German schwarze black, reflecting little or no light #1,635
- Greek μαύρο #1,201
- Hebrew שחורה #1,579
- Hindi काले #1,640
- Hungarian fekete #607
- Icelandic svartur #1,213
- Indonesian hitam #564
- Italian nero #999
- Korean 흑인 black person #1,001
- Latvian melnā #1,322
- Lithuanian juodas #1,430
- Macedonian црна #1,126
- Malay hitam #491
- Malayalam കറുപ്പ് #866
- Norwegian svarte #668
- Persian سیاه #1,031
- Polish czarny #1,883
- Portuguese negro #1,203
- Romanian negru #923
- Serbian crno #1,915
- Slovak čierny #852
- Slovenian črn #1,051
- Spanish negro #730
- Swedish svart #869
- Tagalog taong black mourning veil or handkerchief #178
- Tamil கருப்பு black, dark #598
- Telugu నల్ల #1,074
- Turkish kara black, dark #737
- Ukrainian чорний #1,638
- Urdu سیاہ #541
- Vietnamese đen of the color black #702
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.