How to say “cold” in 42 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 Telugu, where చల్లని is the 210th most used word.
- Afrikaans koud #512
- Albanian ftohtë #585
- Arabic بارد cold, cooling #802
- Armenian ցուրտ cold, chilly #537
- Basque hotz cold, coldness #562
- Bengali ঠান্ডা cold, cool, chilly #668
- Catalan fred cold, cool #915
- Chinese 感冒 cold; common cold #1,336
- Czech zima #1,469
- Danish koldt #1,313
- Dutch koud #957
- Esperanto malvarma #1,136
- Estonian külm #782
- Finnish kylmä #1,488
- French froid #917
- Galician frío #590
- Georgian ცივი #773
- Greek κρύο cold, cold weather, etc #1,202
- Hebrew קר #742
- Hindi ठंड cold, coldness #1,388
- Hungarian hideg #1,031
- Icelandic svalur cool, cold #1,421
- Indonesian kedinginan exposed to cold; suffering from cold #2,235
- Italian freddo #1,076
- Korean 감기 a cold; common cold; influenza #1,767
- Latvian auksts #1,677
- Lithuanian žiaurus cold, brisk #1,711
- Malay sejuk #571
- Malayalam തണുപ്പ് #608
- Norwegian kaldt #1,294
- Persian سرد #963
- Polish zimno #1,687
- Romanian rece #916
- Slovak chladný #2,374
- Slovenian mraz #1,242
- Spanish frío #1,024
- Swedish kalla cold; having a low temperature #571
- Tagalog malamig cold; cool #1,182
- Tamil குளிர் to feel cold, chilly #347
- Telugu చల్లని #210
- Urdu ٹھنڈا #831
- Vietnamese lạnh #789
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.