How to say “color” in 44 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 Hindi, where रंग is the 585th most used word.
- Afrikaans kleur color; colour #984
- Albanian ngjyrë #1,056
- Arabic لون #825
- Armenian գույն #1,368
- Basque kolore color/colour #696
- Bengali রং #615
- Bosnian boje color, tint #1,125
- Bulgarian цвят colour, color #1,495
- Catalan color color, colour #1,072
- Chinese 黑色 the color black #712
- Croatian boje color, tint #1,066
- Czech barvu #2,381
- Danish farve color, colour #1,865
- Dutch kleur a color, colour #1,659
- English green The color of grass and leaves; a primary… #1,009
- Esperanto verda green in color #1,041
- Estonian värv color/colour #1,710
- French blanc white color #970
- Galician cor color, hue #676
- Georgian ფერი color, hue #848
- Greek χρώμα colour, color #1,358
- Hebrew צבע color, colour #1,057
- Hindi रंग #585
- Indonesian warna colour/color #946
- Italian colore color/colour #1,528
- Korean 흰색 The color white #2,378
- Latvian krāsa #1,425
- Lithuanian spalva colour, color #1,162
- Macedonian боја #999
- Malayalam നീല blue; the color of the clear sky and deep sea #612
- Norwegian farge color / colour #2,285
- Persian سرخ scarlet, red color #1,113
- Polish kolor #2,359
- Portuguese cor colour, color #1,421
- Romanian culoare #1,479
- Russian цветы #1,921
- Serbian boje color, tint #1,131
- Slovak farba color, colour #1,244
- Spanish color color / colour, hue #1,181
- Tagalog kulay #1,176
- Tamil வண்ண #758
- Turkish renk color, shade #1,757
- Ukrainian колір #2,013
- Vietnamese màu colour, color #651
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.