How to say “female” in 44 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.
It is commonest in Tamil, where பெண் is the 97th most used word.
Female in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans vriendin/vrinˈdən/ female friend #831
- Albanian femër/ˈfɛ.məɾ/ a female #840
- Arabic فتاة/fa.taːh/ female adolescent, youth, juvenile; young girl #173
- Basque neba/neba/ brother of a female #1,095
- Bengali স্ত্রী/st̪ɾi/ woman, female #352
- Bosnian supruga/ˈsuprʊɡɐ/ wife, female spouse #1,260
- Bulgarian жена[ʒɛˈna] #153
- Catalan esposa[əsˈpɔ.zə] wife; female equivalent of espòs #1,140
- Chinese 女人/ny²¹⁴⁻²¹ ɻən³⁵/ woman; adult female #47
- Croatian supruga/ˈsuprʊɡɐ/ wife, female spouse #963
- Czech kamarádka[ˈkamaraːtka] female buddy #1,395
- Danish veninde/vɛnenə/ female friend #1,608
- Dutch moeder/ˈmu.dər/ mother, female parent #183
- English she/ʃi/ The female person or animal previously… #46
- Esperanto reĝino/reˈd͡ʒino/ female monarch. queen regnant #763
- Estonian sõbranna/sɤb̥rˈɑnːɑ/ a female friend #1,549
- Georgian დაი[d̥äi] used to address a female #1,487
- Hebrew חברה/χaveˈʁa/ A female friend, or more generally a female… #405
- Hindi महिला/mə.ɦɪ.lɑː/ lady, female, woman #247
- Icelandic tík[ˈtʰiːk] a bitch, a female dog #689
- Indonesian perempuan/pərəmˈpuan/ #533
- Italian infermiera/in.ferˈmjɛ.ra/ female nurse #1,834
- Korean 언니[ʌ̹nni] older sister of a female #367
- Latvian kuce/ˈkut͡se/ female dog, bitch #1,277
- Lithuanian draugė[ˈd̪rɐʊ̯ˑɡʲeː] a female friend #619
- Macedonian девојка[ˈdɛvɔjka] girl, young female, maiden #222
- Malay perempuan/pərəmˈpuan/ #234
- Malayalam സുന്ദരി/sun̪d̪ɐɾi/ beauty; beautiful female #538
- Norwegian setter/²ˈsɛtː.ər/ a female hare #430
- Persian ماده[mɒː.d̪é] #1,092
- Portuguese avó/aˈvɔ/ grandmother, female grandparent #1,013
- Romanian amice[ aˈmit͡ʃe ] female friend #626
- Russian миссис[ˈmʲisʲɪs] female equivalent of ми́стер: Mrs, mistress #405
- Serbian supruga/ˈsuprʊɡɐ/ wife, female spouse #1,216
- Slovak panna/panːa/ female virgin #1,571
- Slovenian ženska/ʒèːnska/ female, woman #222
- Spanish hija/ˈixa/ daughter; female equivalent of hijo #339
- Tagalog babae/baˈbaʔe/ woman; girl; female #211
- Tamil பெண்/pɛɳ/ #97
- Telugu ఆమె/aːme/ third-person singular distal female pronoun,… #22
- Turkish cadı/d͡ʒaˈdɯ/ A sorcerer, wizard, a female witch #1,822
- Ukrainian подруга[ˈpɔdrʊɦɐ] female friend, friendess #1,087
- Urdu مادہ/mɑː.d̪ɑː/ #1,603
- Vietnamese mái[maːj˧˦] #796
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.