How to say “dark” 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 Galician, where noite is the 113th most used word.
- Afrikaans donker #518
- Albanian errët #1,031
- Arabic حالك very dark or black, pitch-black, deep black,… #243
- Armenian խավար dark, darkness #611
- Basque ilun #717
- Bengali শ্যাম black, having a dark or swarthy complexion #1,876
- Bosnian mraku dark, darkness #2,051
- Catalan fosc #1,276
- Chinese 黑暗 dark; unlighted #392
- Croatian mraku dark, darkness #2,117
- Danish mørkt #1,675
- Dutch donker #1,179
- English darkness The state of being dark; lack of light; the… #2,371
- Estonian pime #1,032
- French sombre #2,197
- Galician noite night; period of dark, when the sun is below… #113
- German dunkel #1,979
- Greek σκοτάδι darkness, dark #1,352
- Hebrew חשוך dark, obscure #1,965
- Hungarian sötét dark, sombre, somber #976
- Icelandic myrkur #1,680
- Indonesian gelap #740
- Italian buio #1,664
- Korean 어둠 dark; darkness #1,112
- Latvian tumšs #2,064
- Lithuanian tamsa dark, darkness #1,763
- Malay gelap #701
- Malayalam ഇരുണ്ട #653
- Norwegian mørkt #1,607
- Persian تاریک dark; dim #2,291
- Portuguese escuro #1,683
- Romanian întuneric darkness, dark #1,360
- Serbian mraku dark, darkness #2,053
- Slovak temný #2,210
- Slovenian tema dark, darkness #710
- Spanish noche after dark, at night, nocturnally #136
- Swedish mörkt #1,777
- Tagalog madilim dark; obscure #747
- Tamil கருப்பு black, dark #598
- Turkish kara black, dark #737
- Urdu کلو black, dark, someone of dark skin #1,470
- Vietnamese tối #254
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.