How to say “brother” in 53 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 Vietnamese, where cậu is the 34th most used word.
- Afrikaans broer #292
- Albanian vëlla #363
- Arabic أخ #1,319
- Armenian եղբայր #1,813
- Basque anaia #242
- Bengali ভাই #150
- Bosnian brat #487
- Bulgarian брат #274
- Catalan germà #235
- Chinese 哥哥 elder brother; big brother #196
- Croatian brat #495
- Czech bratr #666
- Danish bror #352
- Dutch broer #380
- English uncle The brother or brother-in-law of one’s parent #583
- Esperanto frato #254
- Estonian vend #413
- Finnish veljeni #859
- French frère #322
- Galician irmán #283
- Georgian ძმა #269
- German bruder #337
- Greek αδελφός #1,060
- Hebrew אח #603
- Hindi भाई #185
- Hungarian tesó sibling, brother or sister #1,382
- Icelandic bróðir #1,324
- Indonesian oppa an elder brother, or an affectionate term of… #1,819
- Italian fratello brother, sibling #331
- Korean 형 older brother of a male #375
- Latvian brālis #552
- Lithuanian brolis #360
- Macedonian брат #190
- Malay abang An older brother or male sibling #279
- Malayalam സഹോദരൻ #818
- Norwegian broren a brother #541
- Persian برادر #350
- Polish brat #657
- Portuguese irmão #312
- Romanian fratele #429
- Russian брат #410
- Serbian brat #477
- Slovak brat #321
- Slovenian brat #225
- Spanish hermano #270
- Swedish bror a brother, a contracted form of broder #389
- Tagalog kuya elder brother; big brother #454
- Tamil அண்ணா elder brother #648
- Telugu సోదరుడు #136
- Turkish abi elder brother #1,034
- Ukrainian брат #269
- Urdu بھائی #177
- Vietnamese cậu I/me, your mother's brother #34
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.