How to say “family” 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 Vietnamese, where họ is the 58th most used word.
- Afrikaans familie #249
- Albanian zonja lady in a wealthy family with servants #321
- Arabic عائلة #306
- Armenian ընտանիք #1,123
- Basque familia family, lineage #239
- Bengali পরিবার #328
- Bosnian porodica #683
- Bulgarian семейство #392
- Catalan família #247
- Chinese 家人 one's family or family members #210
- Croatian obitelj #373
- Czech rodina #620
- Danish familie #268
- Dutch gezin immediate family or nuclear family #906
- English friend A person, typically someone other than a… #255
- Esperanto familio #416
- Estonian pere #548
- Finnish perhe family, nuclear family, immediate family #953
- French famille #233
- Galician familia #272
- Georgian ოჯახი #209
- German familie #299
- Greek οικογένεια #408
- Hebrew משפחה family; kin; in particular, a set of parents… #456
- Hindi परिवार family; household #271
- Hungarian család #704
- Icelandic ættir #220
- Indonesian keluarga #262
- Italian famiglia #274
- Korean 가족 household; family #412
- Latvian ģimenes family living together; larger group of… #540
- Lithuanian šeima #322
- Macedonian семејство #288
- Malay keluarga #233
- Malayalam കുടുംബം #267
- Norwegian familien a family #340
- Persian خانواده #213
- Polish rodziny #594
- Portuguese família family; nuclear family #246
- Romanian familia #391
- Russian семья #636
- Serbian porodica #611
- Slovak rodina #360
- Slovenian družina #282
- Spanish familia #253
- Swedish familj #333
- Tagalog pamilya #323
- Tamil குடும்பம் family, household #357
- Turkish eve A building for a family to reside in; house,… #194
- Ukrainian родина #2,242
- Urdu خاندان #231
- Vietnamese họ family name; surname #58
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.