How to say “blue” in 44 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.
- azul/aˈθul/ Spanish
- أزرق/ʔaz.raq/ Arabic
- 파란색[pʰa̠ɾa̠nsʰɛk̚] Korean
- μπλε/ble/ Greek
- כחול/kaːˈħoːl/ Hebrew
- ლურჯი[ɫuɾd͡ʒi] Georgian
“blue” in Spanish: azul · French: bleu · German: blau · Italian: blu · Portuguese: azul · Korean: 파란색 · Arabic: أزرق · Turkish: mavi
It is commonest in Macedonian, where син is the 191st most used word.
Blue in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans blou/blœu̯/ #628
- Albanian blu/ˈblu/ blue, deep blue #862
- Arabic أزرق/ʔaz.raq/ blue, blue-coloured #2,029
- Basque urdin/urdin/ #880
- Bengali নীল/nil/ #573
- Bosnian plavi/ˈplavɪ/ #2,224
- Bulgarian синьо[ˈsinʲo̟] blue, glaucous #2,317
- Catalan blau[ˈblaw] #1,642
- Croatian plavi/ˈplavɪ/ #2,429
- Czech modré[ˈmodrɛː] #2,470
- Danish blå/blɔːˀ/ #923
- Dutch zomaar/ˈzoː.maːr/ just because; for no reason, out of the blue #685
- English blue/blu/ Of a blue hue #791
- Esperanto blua/ˈblua/ #1,163
- Estonian sinine/ˈsinine/ #1,181
- French bleu/blø/ #1,497
- Galician azuis[ɐˈθujs] #998
- Georgian ლურჯი[ɫuɾd͡ʒi] #1,272
- German blau/blaʊ̯/ #2,396
- Greek μπλε/ble/ #1,103
- Hebrew כחול/kaːˈħoːl/ blue, a darker shade than תְּכֵלֶת #1,288
- Hindi नीला/niː.lɑː/ blue color #2,220
- Hungarian kék[ˈkeːk] #1,124
- Icelandic blár[ˈplauːr] #1,654
- Indonesian biru/ˈbi.ru/ #976
- Italian blu/ˈblu/ #1,424
- Korean 파란색[pʰa̠ɾa̠nsʰɛk̚] #2,212
- Lithuanian mėlynas[¹ˈmʲeːlʲiːnɐs] #1,802
- Macedonian син[sin] #191
- Malay biru[bi.ru] #775
- Malayalam നീല/n̪iːlɐ/ blue; the color of the clear sky and deep sea #612
- Norwegian blå/bloː/ #1,089
- Persian آبی[ʔɒː.bíː] #1,745
- Portuguese azul/aˈzuw/ #1,300
- Romanian albastru/al.ˈbas.tru/ #1,550
- Serbian plavi/ˈplavɪ/ #2,378
- Slovak modrý/mɔdriː/ #1,492
- Slovenian modro/ˈmɔːdrɔ/ #826
- Spanish azul/aˈθul/ #1,216
- Swedish blå/bloː/ #1,299
- Tamil நீல/niːlɐ/ blue, azure or purple #669
- Turkish mavi[mɑːˈvɪ] #849
- Urdu نیلا/niːlɑː/ #978
- Vietnamese lam[laːm˧˧] #2,127
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.