How to say “four” in 50 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.
- cuatro/ˈkwatɾo/ Spanish
- четыре[t͡ɕɪˈtɨrʲɪ] Russian
- أربعة/ʔar.ba.ʕa/ Arabic
- 네[ne̞(ː)] Korean
- τέσσερα/ˈte.se.ɾa/ Greek
- ארבעה/ʔar.baːˈʕaː/ Hebrew
“four” in Spanish: cuatro · French: quatre · German: vier · Italian: quattro · Portuguese: quatro · Korean: 네 · Russian: четыре · Arabic: أربعة
It is commonest in Korean, where 네 is the 8th most used word.
Four in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans vier/fir/ #392
- Albanian katër/ˈkatəɾ/ #374
- Arabic أربعة/ʔar.ba.ʕa/ #391
- Armenian չորս/t͡ʃʰoɾs/ #644
- Bengali চার/t͡ʃaɾ/ #418
- Bosnian četiri/t͡ʃětri/ #535
- Bulgarian четири[ˈt͡ʃɛtri] #509
- Catalan quatre[ˈkwa.tɾə] #427
- Croatian četiri/t͡ʃětri/ #472
- Czech čtyři[ˈt͡ʃtɪr̝ɪ] #508
- Danish fire/fiːrə/ #332
- Dutch vier/vir/ #392
- English three/θɹiː/ A numerical value after two and before four.… #227
- Esperanto kvar/kvar/ #420
- Estonian neli/ˈneli/ #459
- Finnish neljä/ˈneljæ/ #437
- French quatre/katʁ/ #516
- Galician catro/ˈkatɾo/ #325
- German vier/fiːr/ #509
- Greek τέσσερα/ˈte.se.ɾa/ four, 4 #879
- Hebrew ארבעה/ʔar.baːˈʕaː/ #717
- Hindi चारों/t͡ʃɑː.ɾõː/ all four, around #474
- Hungarian négy[ˈneːɟ] #469
- Icelandic fjögur/ˈfjœːɣʏr/ #595
- Indonesian empat/əmˈpat/ #485
- Italian quattro/ˈkwat.tro/ #512
- Korean 네[ne̞(ː)] #8
- Latvian četri[tʃɛtri] #732
- Lithuanian keturi[kʲɛtʊˈrʲɪ] #579
- Macedonian четири[ˈt͡ʃɛtiɾi] #424
- Malay empat/əmˈpat/ #455
- Malayalam നാല്/n̪aːlɨ/ #198
- Norwegian fire/ˈfiːrə/ #329
- Persian چهار[t͡ʃʰæ.ɦɒ́ːɹ] #371
- Polish cztery/ˈt͡ʂtɛ.rɘ/ #651
- Portuguese quatro/ˈkwa.tɾu/ #434
- Romanian patru/ˈpa.tru/ #424
- Russian четыре[t͡ɕɪˈtɨrʲɪ] #653
- Serbian četiri/t͡ʃětri/ #496
- Slovak štyri/ʃtiri/ #419
- Slovenian štiri/ʃtìːri/ #260
- Spanish cuatro/ˈkwatɾo/ #410
- Swedish fyra/ˈfyːˌra/ #340
- Tagalog apat/ˈʔapat/ #558
- Tamil நான்கு/nɑːnɡɯ/ #245
- Telugu నలుగురు/naluɡuɾu/ four persons #1,853
- Turkish dört/ˈdøɾt/ #338
- Ukrainian чотири[t͡ʃɔˈtɪre] #563
- Urdu چار/t͡ʃɑːɾ/ #258
- Vietnamese tư[tɨ˧˧] #574
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.