How to say “french” in 34 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.
- francés/fɾanˈθes/ Spanish
- 불어[puɾʌ̹] Korean
- צרפתי/t͡saʁfaˈti/ Hebrew
- ফরাসি/fɔɾaʃi/ Bengali
- பிரஞ்சு/pɪɾɐɲdʒɯ/ Tamil
- ഫ്രെഞ്ച്/freɲd͡ʒɨ̆/ Malayalam
“french” in Spanish: francés · French: français · Italian: francese · Portuguese: francês · Korean: 불어 · Turkish: fransız
It is commonest in Afrikaans, where franse is the 396th most used word.
French in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans franse/ˈfrɑ̃nsə/ #396
- Armenian ֆրանսերեն/fɾɑnseˈɾen/ in French #728
- Basque frantses/frant͡s̺es̺/ #988
- Bengali ফরাসি/fɔɾaʃi/ #1,864
- Bosnian francuski/frǎnt͡suːskiː/ in a French manner, as a Frenchman #1,917
- Bulgarian френски[ˈfrɛnski] #1,873
- Croatian francuski/frǎnt͡suːskiː/ in a French manner, as a Frenchman #2,037
- Danish fransk[ˈfʁɑnˀsɡ̊] #2,010
- Dutch franse/ˈfrɑnsə/ #2,037
- English monsieur/məˈsjʊə(ɹ)/ Mister, especially in a French context #2,306
- Esperanto franca/ˈfrant͡sa/ #1,319
- Estonian prantsuse/ˈprɑntsuse/ #1,033
- French français/fʁɑ̃.sɛ/ #1,524
- Galician francés/fɾanˈθes/ #860
- Hebrew צרפתי/t͡saʁfaˈti/ #2,218
- Hungarian francia[ˈfrɒnt͡sijɒ] #1,630
- Icelandic franska[ˈfranska] #2,159
- Indonesian prancis/ˈprant͡ʃis/ #2,157
- Italian francese/franˈt͡ʃe.ze/ #1,653
- Korean 불어[puɾʌ̹] #1,486
- Lithuanian prancūziškai[prɐn²ˈt͡suːzʲɪʃkɐɪ] in French #2,329
- Macedonian француски[ˈfrant͡suski] #1,634
- Malay perancis/pəˈrant͡ʃis/ #933
- Malayalam ഫ്രെഞ്ച്/freɲd͡ʒɨ̆/ #1,775
- Norwegian fransk/fransk/ #1,857
- Portuguese francês/fɾɐ̃ˈse(j)s/ #2,142
- Serbian francuski/frǎnt͡suːskiː/ in a French manner, as a Frenchman #1,880
- Slovenian francosko/frant͡sóːskɔ/ #1,036
- Spanish francés/fɾanˈθes/ #2,022
- Swedish franska/²franska/ French; a language spoken in e.g. France and… #1,896
- Tagalog pranses/pɾanˈses/ #515
- Tamil பிரஞ்சு/pɪɾɐɲdʒɯ/ French, of or pertaining to France #872
- Turkish fransız/f(ɯ)ɾɑnˈsɯz/ #1,272
- Urdu فرانسیسی/f(ə.)ɾɑːn.siː.siː/ #1,634
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), Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 4.0) and Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.