How to say “empty” in 41 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 vas is the 188th most used word.
- Afrikaans leër #569
- Albanian bosh #1,140
- Arabic فارغ #1,257
- Armenian փուչ hollow; empty; void #534
- Basque hustu to empty out, unload #835
- Bengali ফাঁকা #1,095
- Bosnian prazan empty, vacant #2,212
- Bulgarian празен empty, vacant #2,458
- Chinese 大便 to defecate; to empty one's bowels #1,883
- Croatian prazna empty, vacant #2,257
- Danish tom #570
- Dutch leger empty, hollow #727
- Esperanto malplena #1,322
- Estonian tühi #801
- Finnish tyhjä empty, void #1,682
- French vide #1,182
- Galician vas empty, devoid of content, containing only air #188
- German leer #1,590
- Greek άδειο #1,915
- Hebrew ריק #808
- Hungarian üres #1,101
- Italian vuoto empty, vacant #1,886
- Korean 빈 to be empty #741
- Latvian tukša #1,979
- Lithuanian tuščias empty, vacant #1,280
- Macedonian празен empty, void #2,104
- Malay sunyi deserted, empty #1,820
- Malayalam ഒഴിഞ്ഞ #1,185
- Norwegian tom #479
- Persian خالی empty, devoid #1,244
- Portuguese vazio devoid of content; empty #1,979
- Romanian gol #1,176
- Serbian prazan empty, vacant #2,147
- Slovak prázdny #1,337
- Slovenian prazen #869
- Spanish vacío empty, vacant #2,157
- Swedish tom #654
- Tamil வெற்று empty, plain, blank, void, bare, dummy #853
- Telugu ఖాళీ empty, vacant #456
- Urdu خالی empty, vacant #707
- Vietnamese trống empty; vacant #1,126
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.