How to say “breath” in 32 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 Urdu, where سانس is the 260th most used word.
- Afrikaans asem #532
- Albanian frymë #563
- Armenian շունչ #545
- Basque arnasa breath, act of breathing #470
- Bengali দম #1,112
- Bosnian dah #2,389
- Bulgarian дъх #2,155
- Chinese 深呼吸 to take a deep breath; to breathe deeply #1,287
- Croatian disati to breathe, take breath #1,948
- Czech dech #2,365
- Finnish hengen #1,993
- Georgian მომენტი breath, breathing, moment #1,172
- Hebrew נשימה a breath #1,407
- Hindi सांस breath, respiration #722
- Icelandic andi #1,516
- Indonesian napas #1,606
- Korean 숨 breath, breathing #604
- Latvian elpu breath, breathing #1,566
- Lithuanian kvapas #1,074
- Macedonian здив #1,894
- Malay nafas breath, respiration #820
- Malayalam ശ്വാസം #362
- Norwegian pusten #2,344
- Persian نفس #471
- Polish oddech #2,435
- Serbian dah #2,291
- Slovak dych #1,121
- Tagalog hingal panting; out of breath #554
- Tamil மூச்சு #354
- Telugu ఊపిరి breath, respiration #328
- Turkish nefes #594
- Urdu سانس breath, breathing #260
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.