How to say “book” in 48 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.
- libro/ˈlibɾo/ Spanish
- книга[ˈknʲiɡə] Russian
- كتاب/ki.taːb/ Arabic
- 책[t͡ɕʰɛk̚] Korean
- किताब/kɪ.t̪ɑːb/ Hindi
- βιβλίο/viˈvli.o/ Greek
“book” in Spanish: libro · French: livre · German: buch · Italian: libro · Portuguese: livro · Korean: 책 · Russian: книга · Arabic: كتاب
It is commonest in Hebrew, where ספר is the 321st most used word.
Book in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans boeke/ˈbu.kə/ #475
- Albanian librin/libɾin/ #902
- Arabic كتاب/ki.taːb/ #575
- Armenian գրքեր/ɡərˈkʰer/ #688
- Basque liburu/libuɾu/ #397
- Bengali বই/boi̯/ #452
- Bosnian knjigu/ˈkɲiɡʊ/ #837
- Bulgarian книга[ˈkniɡɐ] #821
- Catalan llibre[ˈʎi.βɾə] #679
- Croatian knjigu/ˈkɲiɡʊ/ #858
- Czech knihu[ˈkɲɪɦu] #1,251
- Danish bog/bɔːˀɣ/ #735
- Dutch boek/buk/ to book, to reserve #620
- Esperanto libro/ˈlibro/ a book #502
- Estonian raamat/ˈrɑˑmɑt/ #956
- Finnish kirja/ˈkirjɑ/ #1,659
- French livre/livʁ/ #653
- Galician libro/ˈlibɾo/ #633
- German buch[bux] #710
- Greek βιβλίο/viˈvli.o/ #588
- Hebrew ספר/ˈsipr/ #321
- Hindi किताब/kɪ.t̪ɑːb/ #1,591
- Hungarian könyvet[ˈkøɲvɛt] #1,482
- Icelandic bækur/ˈpaiːkʏr/ #1,068
- Indonesian buku/ˈbuku/ #399
- Italian libro/ˈli.bro/ #666
- Korean 책[t͡ɕʰɛk̚] #520
- Latvian grāmatu/ˈɡraːmatu/ #821
- Lithuanian knygą[²ˈknʲiːɡɑː] #560
- Macedonian книга[ˈkniɡa] #577
- Malay kitab/ˈkitab/ #2,060
- Malayalam പുസ്തകം/pust̪ɐɡɐm/ #378
- Norwegian bok/buːk/ #1,083
- Persian کتاب[kʰʲe.t̪ʰɒ́ːb̥] #367
- Polish książki/ˈkɕɔw̃ʂ.ki/ #1,413
- Portuguese livro/ˈli.vɾu/ #585
- Romanian carte/ˈkar.te/ #814
- Russian книга[ˈknʲiɡə] #1,709
- Serbian knjigu/ˈkɲiɡʊ/ #821
- Slovak knihu/kɲiɦu/ #586
- Slovenian knjigo/ˈkɲiːɡɔ/ #403
- Spanish libro/ˈlibɾo/ #607
- Tagalog libro/libˈɾo/ #470
- Tamil புத்தகம்/pʊt̪ːɐɡɐm/ #737
- Turkish kitap/ciˈtap/ #786
- Ukrainian книга[ˈknɪɦɐ] #1,154
- Urdu کتاب/kɪ.t̪ɑːb/ book, manuscript, volume #910
- Vietnamese sách[sajk̟̚˧˦] #480
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.