How to say “chair” in 30 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 Tagalog, where upuan is the 641st most used word.
- Afrikaans stoel #1,143
- Albanian karrige #1,517
- Arabic كرسي chair, seat #1,630
- Basque aulki #780
- Bulgarian стол chair, stool #1,918
- Catalan cadira #1,850
- Chinese 椅子 #747
- Danish stole #690
- Dutch stoel a chair, a piece of furniture used for… #1,285
- Esperanto seĝo seat, chair #1,304
- Estonian tooli #1,814
- French chaise chair, seat #2,006
- Galician cadeira chair; armchair #1,794
- German stuhl a chair #2,005
- Greek καρέκλα #1,464
- Hebrew כיסא #2,162
- Italian sedia #1,752
- Korean 의자 chair, sofa #1,564
- Malay kerusi chair, seat #903
- Malayalam കസേര #1,074
- Norwegian stoler a chair #778
- Persian صندلی #1,784
- Portuguese cadeira #1,502
- Romanian scaun chair, seat #1,571
- Russian вести to lead, to preside over, to chair #957
- Slovenian stol #728
- Spanish silla #1,532
- Tagalog upuan #641
- Tamil நாற்காலி #1,865
- Urdu کرسی #1,108
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.