How to say “friend” 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 Chinese, where 朋友 is the 26th most used word.
- Afrikaans vriend #213
- Albanian shoku male friend #191
- Arabic صديق #286
- Armenian ընկեր #212
- Basque lagun companion, colleague, friend #117
- Bengali বন্ধু #162
- Bosnian prijatelj #361
- Bulgarian приятел male friend, male crony, male mate, male… #196
- Catalan amic #237
- Chinese 朋友 #26
- Croatian prijatelj #361
- Czech přítel #570
- Danish ven #204
- Dutch vriend #259
- English pal A friend, buddy, mate, cobber; someone to… #1,768
- Esperanto amiko #238
- Estonian sõber #265
- Finnish kaveri friend, buddy, pal, mate #470
- French ami #270
- Galician amigo #259
- Georgian მეგობრები #233
- German freund #256
- Greek φίλος #402
- Hebrew חבר A friend #133
- Hindi दोस्त #202
- Hungarian barátok #752
- Icelandic vinur #153
- Indonesian teman #201
- Italian amico friend, companion, partner #161
- Korean 친구 #171
- Latvian draugs #186
- Lithuanian draugas male friend #246
- Macedonian пријател friend, pal, mate #213
- Malay rakan #469
- Malayalam സുഹൃത്ത് #283
- Norwegian venn a friend #252
- Persian دوست #49
- Polish koleś friend, buddy #792
- Portuguese amigo #218
- Romanian prieten #433
- Russian друг close friend #195
- Serbian prijatelj #377
- Slovak priateľ #319
- Slovenian prijatelj #178
- Spanish amigo #191
- Swedish vän a friend #225
- Tagalog kaibigan friend; pal #96
- Tamil நண்பர் friend, companion #177
- Telugu స్నేహితుడు boyfriend, a male friend #115
- Turkish dostum #181
- Ukrainian друг friend, companion #227
- Urdu دوست #161
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.