How to say “clothing” in 34 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 衣服 is the 121st most used word.
- Afrikaans klere clothes, clothing #656
- Armenian հագուստ clothes, clothing #843
- Basque jantzi clothes, clothing #354
- Bengali পোশাক clothes, clothing #680
- Bulgarian дрехи indefinite plural of дре́ха: clothing; clothes #894
- Catalan vestit dress, apparel, clothing #762
- Chinese 衣服 clothing; clothes; laundry #121
- Croatian odjeća #2,033
- Czech oblečení #999
- Dutch kleding #2,043
- English clothes Items of clothing; apparel #780
- Esperanto vestaĵojn garment, article of clothing, piece of… #1,633
- Finnish vaatteet piece of clothing, garment #1,567
- French vêtements garment, item of clothing #1,197
- Galician roupa clothing, clothes #599
- German kleidung clothing; apparel #2,363
- Hebrew לבוש #1,753
- Hindi कपड़े clothing; article of clothing #702
- Indonesian pakaian clothes; clothing #659
- Korean 옷 clothing; clothes #363
- Macedonian облека clothing, clothes #717
- Malay pakaian clothes; clothing #502
- Malayalam ഉടുപ്പ് #1,263
- Persian لباس #264
- Polish ubrania piece of clothing #1,866
- Portuguese roupa clothing, clothes #841
- Serbian odeća #2,298
- Slovak oblečenie #801
- Spanish ropa garment, clothing, clothes, robes #645
- Tagalog suot clothing; clothes; what one is wearing #539
- Tamil ஆடை cloth, clothing, dress, garment #546
- Turkish elbise piece of clothing, clothes #1,406
- Ukrainian одяг clothes, clothing, garments #1,367
- Urdu لباس clothes, clothing, attire #619
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.