How to say “cold” in 42 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.
- frío/ˈfɾio/ Spanish
- بارد/baː.rid/ Arabic
- 感冒/kän²¹⁴⁻²¹ mɑʊ̯⁵¹/ Chinese
- 감기[ˈka̠(ː)mɡi] Korean
- ठंड/ʈʰəɳɖ/ Hindi
- κρύο/ˈkɾi.o/ Greek
“cold” in Spanish: frío · French: froid · Italian: freddo · Chinese: 感冒 · Korean: 감기 · Arabic: بارد · Hindi: ठंड · Greek: κρύο
It is commonest in Telugu, where చల్లని is the 210th most used word.
Cold in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans koud/kœu̯t/ #512
- Albanian ftohtë/ˈftɔhtə/ #585
- Arabic بارد/baː.rid/ cold, cooling #802
- Armenian ցուրտ/t͡sʰuɾt/ cold, chilly #537
- Basque hotz/hot͡s̻/ cold, coldness #562
- Bengali ঠান্ডা/ʈʰanɖa/ cold, cool, chilly #668
- Catalan fred[ˈfɾɛt] cold, cool #915
- Chinese 感冒/kän²¹⁴⁻²¹ mɑʊ̯⁵¹/ cold; common cold #1,336
- Czech zima[ˈzɪma] #1,469
- Danish koldt[ˈkʰʌlˀd̥] #1,313
- Dutch koud/kɑu̯t/ #957
- Esperanto malvarma/malˈvarma/ #1,136
- Estonian külm/ˈkylʲm/ #782
- Finnish kylmä/ˈkylmæ/ #1,488
- French froid/fʁwa/ #917
- Galician frío/ˈfɾio/ #590
- Georgian ცივი[t͡sʰivi] #773
- Greek κρύο/ˈkɾi.o/ cold, cold weather, etc #1,202
- Hebrew קר/ˈqar.ri/ #742
- Hindi ठंड/ʈʰəɳɖ/ cold, coldness #1,388
- Hungarian hideg[ˈhidɛɡ] #1,031
- Icelandic svalur[ˈsvaːlʏr] cool, cold #1,421
- Indonesian kedinginan/kə.diˈŋi.nan/ exposed to cold; suffering from cold #2,235
- Italian freddo/ˈfred.do/ #1,076
- Korean 감기[ˈka̠(ː)mɡi] a cold; common cold; influenza #1,767
- Latvian auksts[ˈāūkst͡s] #1,677
- Lithuanian žiaurus[ʒʲɛʊˈrʊs] cold, brisk #1,711
- Malay sejuk/səˈd͡ʒuk/ #571
- Malayalam തണുപ്പ്/t̪ɐɳuppɨ/ #608
- Norwegian kaldt/ˈkɑlt/ #1,294
- Persian سرد[sǽɹd̪̥] #963
- Polish zimno/ˈʑim.nɔ/ #1,687
- Romanian rece[ˈret͡ʃe] #916
- Slovak chladný/xladniː/ #2,374
- Slovenian mraz/mrás/ #1,242
- Spanish frío/ˈfɾio/ #1,024
- Swedish kalla/²kalːa/ cold; having a low temperature #571
- Tagalog malamig/malaˈmiɡ/ cold; cool #1,182
- Tamil குளிர்/kʊɭɪɾ/ to feel cold, chilly #347
- Telugu చల్లని/ˈcallani/ #210
- Urdu ٹھنڈا/ʈʰən.ɖɑː/ #831
- Vietnamese lạnh[lajŋ̟˧˨ʔ] #789
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 Bengali (google (bn_BD), CC BY-SA 4.0), Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), CC BY-SA 4.0), Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 4.0), Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0) and Vietnamese (vais1000 (vi_VN), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.