How to say “forest” in 45 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 جنگل is the 208th most used word.
- Afrikaans bos wood, forest #412
- Albanian pyll forest, wood #1,195
- Arabic غابة #2,423
- Armenian անտառ forest, wood #1,132
- Basque basora forest, woods, jungle #1,205
- Bengali মাল a forest or wood near a village #682
- Bosnian šumi forest, woods #1,651
- Catalan bosc forest; wood; woods #1,004
- Chinese 森林 forest; trees #535
- Croatian šumi forest, woods #1,577
- Danish skoven #1,179
- Dutch bos wood, forest #1,267
- Esperanto arbaro #401
- Estonian metsa #1,135
- French forêt #2,070
- Galician bosque #1,598
- Georgian ტყის forest, wood #1,364
- German wald forest; woods; woodland #1,334
- Greek δάσος wood, forest #1,107
- Hindi जंगल forest, woods #621
- Hungarian erdőben #2,298
- Indonesian hutan #705
- Korean 숲 a forest or grove #1,049
- Latvian mežā #1,414
- Lithuanian miškas #2,449
- Macedonian шума forest, woods #1,953
- Malay hutan #605
- Malayalam കാട് #751
- Norwegian skogen forest, wood #1,065
- Persian جنگل jungle, forest #662
- Portuguese floresta #1,563
- Romanian pădure #1,368
- Russian лесу forest, woods #2,270
- Serbian šumi forest, woods #1,524
- Slovak les forest, woods #1,295
- Slovenian gozd #723
- Spanish bosque #1,348
- Swedish skogen forest, wood #1,020
- Tagalog gubat woods; woodland; forest #293
- Tamil கான் #1,229
- Telugu అడవి #221
- Turkish orman forest, wood #2,339
- Ukrainian лісі forest, woods #1,752
- Urdu جنگل jungle, forest, wilderness #208
- Vietnamese rừng #981
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.