How to say “face” in 52 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.
- cara/ˈkaɾa/ Spanish
- лицо[lʲɪˈt͡so] Russian
- 얼굴[ʌ̹ɭɡuɭ] Korean
- πρόσωπο/ˈprosopo/ Greek
- פנים/paˈnim/ Hebrew
- სახე[säχe̞] Georgian
“face” in Spanish: cara · French: visage · German: gesicht · Italian: volta · Portuguese: rosto · Korean: 얼굴 · Russian: лицо · Greek: πρόσωπο
It is commonest in Urdu, where وجہ is the 107th most used word.
Face in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans gesig/χəˈsəχ/ #307
- Albanian fytyrë/fyˈtyɹə/ #656
- Arabic قناع/qi.naːʕ/ a face covering, a mask #2,410
- Armenian դեմք/demkʰ/ #939
- Basque aurpegi/au̯rpeɡi/ #515
- Bengali চেহারা/t͡ʃehaɾa/ face, countenance #422
- Bosnian lice/lǐːt͡se/ #498
- Bulgarian лице[liˈt͡sɛ] #774
- Catalan cares[ˈka.ɾəs] #1,943
- Chinese 面前/mi̯ɛn⁵¹ t͡ɕʰi̯ɛn³⁵/ in front of one's face; in front #278
- Croatian lice/lǐːt͡se/ #522
- Czech tvář[ˈtvaːr̝̊] #1,002
- Danish ansigt[ˈanˌseɡd̥] #578
- English meet/mit/ To come face to face with by accident; to… #312
- Esperanto vizaĝo/viˈzad͡ʒo/ #667
- Estonian nägu/ˈnæɡ̊u/ #555
- Finnish kasvot/ˈkɑsʋot/ face, visage #2,041
- French visage/vi.zaʒ/ #645
- Galician rostro/ˈrostɾo/ #1,498
- Georgian სახე[säχe̞] #445
- German gesicht/ɡəˈzɪçt/ #561
- Greek πρόσωπο/ˈprosopo/ #611
- Hebrew פנים/paˈnim/ #404
- Hindi ओर/oːɾ/ side, face, direction #255
- Hungarian pofa[ˈpofɒ] face, mouth, muzzle, snout #1,513
- Icelandic andlit[ˈant.lɪːt] face, countenance #769
- Indonesian wajah/ˈwad͡ʒah/ #619
- Italian volta/ˈvɔl.ta/ #153
- Korean 얼굴[ʌ̹ɭɡuɭ] #455
- Latvian seju/ˈseju/ #724
- Lithuanian veidas[¹ˈʋʲæˑɪdɐs] #797
- Macedonian лице[ˈlit͡sɛ] #417
- Malay muka/ˈmuka/ #474
- Malayalam മുഖം/muk(ʰ)ɐm/ #190
- Norwegian ansiktet/ɑnsɪktə/ #692
- Persian صورت[suː.ɹǽt̪ʰ] #331
- Polish strony/ˈstrɔ.nɘ/ side; face #652
- Portuguese rosto/ˈʁos.tu/ #1,598
- Romanian fața[ˈfatsa] #2,178
- Russian лицо[lʲɪˈt͡so] #589
- Serbian lice/lǐːt͡se/ #507
- Slovak tvár/tvaːr/ #411
- Slovenian obraz/ɔbrás/ #295
- Spanish cara/ˈkaɾa/ #377
- Swedish ansikte/anːsɪktə/ a face; front side of the head #775
- Tagalog mukha/mukˈhaʔ/ #264
- Tamil முகம்/mʊɡɐm/ #634
- Telugu ముఖ/ˈmukʰa/ of or pertaining to the face; facial #1,271
- Turkish üst/ˈyst/ something's face or side looking upwards or… #783
- Ukrainian обличчя[ɔˈbɫɪt͡ʃʲːɐ] #709
- Urdu وجہ/ʋəd͡ʒə/ face, visage, countenance, aspect #107
- Vietnamese mặt[mat̚˧˨ʔ] #187
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.