How to say “chair” in 30 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.
- silla/ˈsiʝa/ Spanish
- كرسي/kur.sijj/ Arabic
- 椅子/i²¹⁴ d͡z̥ɹ̩⁴/ Chinese
- 의자[ɰid͡ʑa̠] Korean
- καρέκλα/kaˈɾe.kla/ Greek
- כיסא/kisˈseː/ Hebrew
“chair” in Spanish: silla · French: chaise · German: stuhl · Italian: sedia · Portuguese: cadeira · Chinese: 椅子 · Korean: 의자 · Arabic: كرسي
It is commonest in Tagalog, where upuan is the 641st most used word.
Chair in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans stoel/stul/ #1,143
- Albanian karrige[kaˈriɡɛ] #1,517
- Arabic كرسي/kur.sijj/ chair, seat #1,630
- Basque aulki/au̯lki/ #780
- Bulgarian стол[stɔɫ] chair, stool #1,918
- Catalan cadira[kəˈði.ɾə] #1,850
- Chinese 椅子/i²¹⁴ d͡z̥ɹ̩⁴/ #747
- Danish stole/stoːlə/ #690
- Dutch stoel/stul/ a chair, a piece of furniture used for… #1,285
- Esperanto seĝo/ˈsed͡ʒo/ seat, chair #1,304
- Estonian tooli/ˈtoːli/ #1,814
- French chaise/ʃɛz/ chair, seat #2,006
- Galician cadeira/kaˈdejɾa/ chair; armchair #1,794
- German stuhl/ʃtuːl/ a chair #2,005
- Greek καρέκλα/kaˈɾe.kla/ #1,464
- Hebrew כיסא/kisˈseː/ #2,162
- Italian sedia/ˈsɛ.dja/ #1,752
- Korean 의자[ɰid͡ʑa̠] chair, sofa #1,564
- Malay kerusi/kəˈrusi/ chair, seat #903
- Malayalam കസേര/kɐseːɾɐ/ #1,074
- Norwegian stoler/ˈstuːlər/ a chair #778
- Persian صندلی[sæn̪.d̪æ.líː] #1,784
- Portuguese cadeira/kaˈde(j).ɾɐ/ #1,502
- Romanian scaun/ˈskaʊn/ chair, seat #1,571
- Russian вести[vʲɪˈsʲtʲi] to lead, to preside over, to chair #957
- Slovenian stol/stɔ́ʋ/ #728
- Spanish silla/ˈsiʝa/ #1,532
- Tagalog upuan/ʔuˈpuʔan/ #641
- Tamil நாற்காலி/nɑːrkɑːliː/ #1,865
- Urdu کرسی/kʊɾ.siː/ #1,108
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 Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), CC BY-SA 4.0), Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 4.0) and Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.