How to say “blue” in 44 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 Macedonian, where син is the 191st most used word.
- Afrikaans blou #628
- Albanian blu blue, deep blue #862
- Arabic أزرق blue, blue-coloured #2,029
- Basque urdin #880
- Bengali নীল #573
- Bosnian plavi #2,224
- Bulgarian синьо blue, glaucous #2,317
- Catalan blau #1,642
- Croatian plavi #2,429
- Czech modré #2,470
- Danish blå #923
- Dutch zomaar just because; for no reason, out of the blue #685
- English blue Of a blue hue #791
- Esperanto blua #1,163
- Estonian sinine #1,181
- French bleu #1,497
- Galician azuis #998
- Georgian ლურჯი #1,272
- German blau #2,396
- Greek μπλε #1,103
- Hebrew כחול blue, a darker shade than תְּכֵלֶת #1,288
- Hindi नीला blue color #2,220
- Hungarian kék #1,124
- Icelandic blár #1,654
- Indonesian biru #976
- Italian blu #1,424
- Korean 파란색 #2,212
- Lithuanian mėlynas #1,802
- Macedonian син #191
- Malay biru #775
- Malayalam നീല blue; the color of the clear sky and deep sea #612
- Norwegian blå #1,089
- Persian آبی #1,745
- Portuguese azul #1,300
- Romanian albastru #1,550
- Serbian plavi #2,378
- Slovak modrý #1,492
- Slovenian modro #826
- Spanish azul #1,216
- Swedish blå #1,299
- Tamil நீல blue, azure or purple #669
- Turkish mavi #849
- Urdu نیلا #978
- Vietnamese lam #2,127
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.