How to say “colour” 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 Telugu, where రంగు is the 245th most used word.
- Afrikaans kleur color; colour #984
- Basque kolore color/colour #696
- Bengali বর্ণ color, colour #2,249
- Bulgarian цвят colour, color #1,495
- Catalan color color, colour #1,072
- Chinese 金色 gold colour #2,188
- Danish farve color, colour #1,865
- Dutch kleur a color, colour #1,659
- English red The colour of the setting sun, blood, and… #585
- Esperanto koloroj #1,817
- Estonian värv color/colour #1,710
- French noir black in colour #729
- German farbe #1,780
- Greek χρώμα colour, color #1,358
- Hebrew צבע color, colour #1,057
- Icelandic lit #1,533
- Indonesian warna colour/color #946
- Italian colore color/colour #1,528
- Korean 초록색 green colour #2,082
- Lithuanian spalva colour, color #1,162
- Malay putih Being white in colour #567
- Malayalam നിറം #590
- Norwegian farge color / colour #2,285
- Persian رنگ #617
- Portuguese cor colour, color #1,421
- Romanian color color / colour #2,493
- Slovak farba color, colour #1,244
- Slovenian barva #765
- Spanish color color / colour, hue #1,181
- Swedish färg colour; the spectral composition of visible… #1,918
- Tamil நிறம் colour, complexion #1,452
- Telugu రంగు colour, hue, tint #245
- Urdu رنگ #435
- 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.