How to say “dream” in 42 different 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.
- 꿈[k͈um] Korean
- सपना/səp.nɑː/ Hindi
- όνειρο/ˈoniro/ Greek
- חלום/χaˈlom/ Hebrew
- სიზმარი[sizmäɾi] Georgian
- երազ/jeˈɾɑz/ Armenian
“dream” in French: rêve · German: traum · Italian: sogno · Portuguese: sonho · Korean: 꿈 · Hindi: सपना · Turkish: hayal · Greek: όνειρο
It is commonest in Tamil, where கனவு is the 239th most used word.
Dream in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans droom/ˈdrʊəm/ #408
- Albanian ëndërr[ˈəndər] #777
- Arabic حلم/ħulm/ to dream or about while asleep #911
- Armenian երազ/jeˈɾɑz/ #464
- Basque amets/amet͡s̺/ #363
- Bengali স্বপ্ন/ʃɔpno/ #348
- Catalan somni[ˈsɔm.ni] #741
- Chinese 理想/li²¹⁴⁻³⁵ ɕi̯ɑŋ²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/ ideal; dream #995
- Czech sen[ˈsɛn] #943
- Danish drøm/ˈtrœm/ to dream #882
- Dutch droom/droːm/ to dream #849
- Esperanto sonĝo/ˈsond͡ʒo/ #1,162
- Estonian unistus/ˈunistus/ #1,394
- French rêve/ʁaɪ̯v/ #694
- Galician soño/ˈsoɲo/ #595
- Georgian სიზმარი[sizmäɾi] #1,225
- German traum/tʁaʊ̯m/ #951
- Greek όνειρο/ˈoniro/ #953
- Hebrew חלום/χaˈlom/ #928
- Hindi सपना/səp.nɑː/ dream, reverie, vision #724
- Hungarian álom[ˈaːlom] #1,713
- Icelandic draumur[ˈtrœiːmʏr] #900
- Indonesian mimpi/ˈmimpi/ #544
- Italian sogno/ˈsoɲ.ɲo/ #864
- Korean 꿈[k͈um] #580
- Latvian sapnis/ˈsapnis/ #903
- Lithuanian sapnas[²ˈsɑːpnɐs] #1,157
- Macedonian сон[sɔn] #574
- Malay mimpi/ˈmimpi/ #523
- Malayalam സ്വപ്നം/sʋɐpnɐm/ dream seen at night, Imaginary events seen in… #213
- Norwegian drøm/drøm/ a dream #1,105
- Portuguese sonho/ˈsõ.ɲu/ #885
- Romanian vis[vis] dream; vision #1,071
- Slovak sen/sen/ #531
- Slovenian sanjati/sàːnjati/ to dream #1,881
- Swedish dröm/drœmː/ a dream #991
- Tagalog pangarap/paˈŋaɾap/ ambition; dream #903
- Tamil கனவு/kɐnɐʋɯ/ #239
- Telugu కల/kala/ #261
- Turkish hayal/haˈjal/ dream, wish #417
- Urdu خواب/xʷɑːb/ #674
- Vietnamese mơ[məː˧˧] to dream #668
The speaker reads the word in the voice the LangX app uses for that language — synthesised, not a recording of a native speaker, so treat it as a guide. A row without a button has no reading we are free to use, or none we trust, yet. Voices for Bengali (google (bn_BD), CC BY-SA 4.0), Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), CC BY-SA 4.0), Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 4.0), Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0) and Vietnamese (vais1000 (vi_VN), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.