How to say “brother” in 53 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.
- hermano/eɾˈmano/ Spanish
- брат[brat] Russian
- أخ/ʔax/ Arabic
- भाई/bʱɑː.iː/ Hindi
- αδελφός/a.ðelˈfos/ Greek
- אח/ʔaːχ/ Hebrew
“brother” in Spanish: hermano · French: frère · German: bruder · Italian: fratello · Portuguese: irmão · Russian: брат · Arabic: أخ · Hindi: भाई
It is commonest in Telugu, where సోదరుడు is the 136th most used word.
Brother in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans broer/ˈbruːr/ #292
- Albanian vëlla/vəˈɫa/ #363
- Arabic أخ/ʔax/ #1,319
- Armenian եղբայր/jeχˈpɑjɾ/ #1,813
- Basque anaia/anai̯a/ #242
- Bengali ভাই/bʱai̯/ #150
- Bosnian brat/brât/ #487
- Bulgarian брат[brat] #274
- Catalan germà[ʒərˈma] #235
- Chinese 哥哥/kɤ⁵⁵ g̊ə²/ elder brother; big brother #196
- Croatian brat/brât/ #495
- Czech bratr[ˈbratr̩] #666
- Danish bror/ˈbʁoɐ̯/ #352
- Dutch broer/brur/ #380
- English uncle/ˈʌŋ.kl̩/ The brother or brother-in-law of one’s parent #583
- Esperanto frato/ˈfrato/ #254
- Estonian vend/vend̥/ #413
- Finnish veljeni/ˈveljenɪ/ #859
- French frère/fʁɛʁ/ #322
- Galician irmán/iɾˈmaŋ/ #283
- Georgian ძმა[d͡zmä] #269
- German bruder/ˈbruːdɐ/ #337
- Greek αδελφός/a.ðelˈfos/ #1,060
- Hebrew אח/ʔaːχ/ #603
- Hindi भाई/bʱɑː.iː/ #185
- Hungarian tesó[ˈtɛʃoː] sibling, brother or sister #1,382
- Icelandic bróðir[ˈprouːðɪr] #1,324
- Indonesian oppa/ˈopa/ an elder brother, or an affectionate term of… #1,819
- Italian fratello/fraˈtɛl.lo/ brother, sibling #331
- Korean 형[çʌ̹ŋ] older brother of a male #375
- Latvian brālis[ˈbɾāːlis] #552
- Lithuanian brolis[¹ˈbroːlʲɪs] #360
- Macedonian брат[brat] #190
- Malay abang[a.baŋ] An older brother or male sibling #279
- Malayalam സഹോദരൻ/sɐhoːd̪ɐɾɐn/ #818
- Norwegian broren/ˈbruːn̩/ a brother #541
- Persian برادر[bæ.ɹɒː.d̪ǽɹ] #350
- Polish brat/ˈbrat/ #657
- Portuguese irmão/iʁˈmɐ̃w̃/ #312
- Romanian fratele/fraˈtele/ #429
- Russian брат[brat] #410
- Serbian brat/brât/ #477
- Slovak brat/brat/ #321
- Slovenian brat/brát/ #225
- Spanish hermano/eɾˈmano/ #270
- Swedish bror/ˈbruːr/ a brother, a contracted form of broder #389
- Tagalog kuya/ˈkuja/ elder brother; big brother #454
- Tamil அண்ணா/ɐɳːɑː/ elder brother #648
- Telugu సోదరుడు/ˈsoːdaˌruɖu/ #136
- Turkish abi/aːˈbi/ elder brother #1,034
- Ukrainian брат[brat] #269
- Urdu بھائی/bʱɑː.iː/ #177
- Vietnamese cậu[kəw˧˨ʔ] I/me, your mother's brother #34
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.