How to say “colonel” 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 Afrikaans, where kolonel is the 429th most used word.
- Afrikaans kolonel #429
- Bosnian pukovnik #1,919
- Bulgarian полковник #1,068
- Catalan coronel #1,135
- Chinese 上校 colonel; captain #450
- Croatian pukovnik #1,770
- Czech plukovník #2,484
- Danish oberst #906
- Dutch kolonel colonel, the military rank #942
- Estonian kolonel #613
- Finnish eversti #1,166
- French colonel a colonel, highest commissioned officer below… #1,102
- Galician coronel #1,379
- German colonel colonel; Colonel #1,152
- Greek συνταγματάρχη the rank of colonel in the British and US… #2,442
- Hebrew קולונל #997
- Hindi कर्नल #1,276
- Hungarian ezredes #1,227
- Icelandic ofursti #704
- Indonesian kolonel #1,246
- Italian colonnello #1,499
- Lithuanian pulkininkas #1,693
- Macedonian полковник #1,854
- Persian سرهنگ #1,195
- Polish pułkowniku #2,018
- Portuguese coronel #996
- Russian полковник #1,711
- Serbian pukovnik #1,805
- Slovak plukovník #638
- Slovenian polkovnica #2,170
- Spanish coronel #1,097
- Swedish överste a colonel #1,196
- Turkish albay #961
- Ukrainian полковник #2,417
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.