How to say “face” in 52 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 Urdu, where وجہ is the 107th most used word.
- Afrikaans gesig #307
- Albanian fytyrë #656
- Arabic قناع a face covering, a mask #2,410
- Armenian դեմք #939
- Basque aurpegi #515
- Bengali চেহারা face, countenance #422
- Bosnian lice #498
- Bulgarian лице #774
- Catalan cares #1,943
- Chinese 面前 in front of one's face; in front #278
- Croatian lice #522
- Czech tvář #1,002
- Danish ansigt #578
- English meet To come face to face with by accident; to… #312
- Esperanto vizaĝo #667
- Estonian nägu #555
- Finnish kasvot face, visage #2,041
- French visage #645
- Galician rostro #1,498
- Georgian სახე #445
- German gesicht #561
- Greek πρόσωπο #611
- Hebrew פנים #404
- Hindi ओर side, face, direction #255
- Hungarian pofa face, mouth, muzzle, snout #1,513
- Icelandic andlit face, countenance #769
- Indonesian wajah #619
- Italian volta #153
- Korean 얼굴 #455
- Latvian seju #724
- Lithuanian veidas #797
- Macedonian лице #417
- Malay muka #474
- Malayalam മുഖം #190
- Norwegian ansiktet #692
- Persian صورت #331
- Polish strony side; face #652
- Portuguese rosto #1,598
- Romanian fața #2,178
- Russian лицо #589
- Serbian lice #507
- Slovak tvár #411
- Slovenian obraz #295
- Spanish cara #377
- Swedish ansikte a face; front side of the head #775
- Tagalog mukha #264
- Tamil முகம் #634
- Telugu ముఖ of or pertaining to the face; facial #1,271
- Turkish üst something's face or side looking upwards or… #783
- Ukrainian обличчя #709
- Urdu وجہ face, visage, countenance, aspect #107
- Vietnamese mặt #187
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.