How to say “car” in 47 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 Slovenian, where avto is the 168th most used word.
- Afrikaans motor car, automobile #977
- Albanian makinë #302
- Arabic سيارة automobile, car, motorcar #217
- Basque auto automobile, car #385
- Bengali গাড়ি #1,625
- Bosnian auto car, automobile #319
- Bulgarian кола car, motorcar, automobile, sedan, saloon car #413
- Croatian auto car, automobile #326
- Czech auto car, automobile #379
- Danish bil car, automobile #313
- Dutch auto car, automobile #245
- English garage A building used to store a car or cars, tools… #2,405
- Esperanto aŭto a car #661
- Estonian auto car, automobile #316
- Finnish auto car, automobile #523
- French voiture #254
- Galician coche #355
- German auto #397
- Greek αυτοκίνητο car, motorcar, automobile #521
- Hebrew מכונית #692
- Hindi गाड़ी car, truck, bus #1,219
- Hungarian autó auto, automobile, car #1,419
- Icelandic bílnum #378
- Indonesian mobil car, automobile, a vehicle steered by a driver #239
- Italian auto clipping of automobile: car #455
- Korean 자동차 automobile, car #745
- Latvian auto #835
- Lithuanian automobilį car, automobile #752
- Macedonian кола car, motorcar, automobile #364
- Malay kereta automobile, car, motorcar: A wheeled vehicle… #179
- Malayalam കാർ car, automobile #385
- Norwegian bilen a car, automobile #246
- Persian ماشین #487
- Polish samochód car, automobile #454
- Romanian mașină #2,430
- Russian машина car, motor vehicle #670
- Serbian auto car, automobile #342
- Slovak auto #234
- Slovenian avto car, automobile #168
- Spanish coche car, automobile #407
- Swedish bilen a car #310
- Tagalog kotse car; automobile #268
- Tamil தேர் chariot, vehicle, car #969
- Turkish araba #418
- Ukrainian машина car, automobile, motor vehicle #458
- Urdu گاڑی #223
- Vietnamese toa a railroad car/railway carriage #2,038
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.