How to say “child” in 52 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 Chinese, where 孩子 is the 18th most used word.
- Afrikaans kind #133
- Albanian fëmijë child, offspring, toddler #213
- Arabic طفل #274
- Basque ume #275
- Bengali সন্তান child, offspring #544
- Bosnian dijete child, kid #431
- Bulgarian дете child, kid #317
- Catalan nens boy, male child #379
- Chinese 孩子 child; children; kid #18
- Croatian dijete child, kid #314
- Czech dítě #287
- Danish børn #257
- Dutch kinderen child, kid, non-adult human #261
- English girl A female child #202
- Esperanto infanoj #218
- Estonian lapsed child, kid #385
- Finnish lapset #556
- French enfants #255
- Galician nenos boy; male child, especially before puberty #292
- Georgian შვილი #184
- German kinder kid; child #278
- Greek παιδιά child; kid #125
- Hebrew ילד a child, a kid, a boy #220
- Hindi बच्चे #212
- Hungarian gyerek alternative form of gyermek child” #484
- Icelandic börn #343
- Indonesian anak #107
- Italian bambino child, baby, toddler, tot #356
- Korean 아이 child, kid #301
- Latvian bērni #354
- Lithuanian vaikas #268
- Macedonian дете child, kid #215
- Malay anak A person's child #104
- Malayalam കുട്ടി #134
- Norwegian barn #216
- Persian بچه child, kid #46
- Polish dzieci #228
- Portuguese crianças #458
- Romanian copii #300
- Russian ребята child, kid, baby: children, kids, babies #322
- Serbian dete child, kid #348
- Slovak dieťa #186
- Slovenian otrok #172
- Spanish niños child, boy #331
- Swedish barn a child #182
- Tagalog anak child; offspring #135
- Tamil பிள்ளை child, infant, offspring #1,423
- Telugu శిశువు a child, infant #108
- Turkish çocuk #197
- Ukrainian дитина #549
- Urdu بچہ baby; kid, child #367
- Vietnamese bé you, little child #186
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.