How to say “girl” in 50 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 Serbian, where treba is the 74th most used word.
- Afrikaans meisie #228
- Albanian vajza #221
- Armenian օրիորդ girl; unmarried woman; maid, maiden; damsel #98
- Basque neska #96
- Bengali মেয়ে #538
- Bosnian treba girl, chick #83
- Bulgarian момиче #229
- Catalan noia girl, young woman #259
- Chinese 女孩 #83
- Croatian treba girl, chick #110
- Czech holka #523
- Danish pige #262
- Dutch meisje girl, lass #299
- Esperanto knabino #362
- Estonian tüdruk #295
- Finnish tyttö #283
- French fille #176
- Galician rapaza #449
- Georgian გოგო #220
- German mädchen #247
- Greek κορίτσι girl, daughter #318
- Hebrew ילדה #407
- Hindi लड़की #248
- Hungarian lány #280
- Icelandic stelpa #462
- Indonesian gadis #204
- Italian ragazza girl, young woman #272
- Korean 아가씨 Miss, girl, young lady #400
- Latvian meitene #387
- Lithuanian mergina young woman, girl, lass #263
- Macedonian девојка girl, young female, maiden #222
- Malay gadis maiden, young girl #247
- Malayalam സ്ത്രീ #221
- Norwegian jente girl; young woman #398
- Polish dziewczyna #488
- Portuguese menina #526
- Romanian fata #285
- Russian девушка girl, lass #537
- Serbian treba girl, chick #74
- Slovak dievča #203
- Slovenian dekle #226
- Spanish niña girl, female equivalent of niño #587
- Swedish flicka a girl #543
- Tagalog babae woman; girl; female #211
- Tamil சிறுமி girl, lass #2,038
- Telugu అమ్మాయి a little girl #121
- Turkish kız #133
- Ukrainian дівчина young girl, girl #647
- Urdu لڑکی #212
- Vietnamese nhỏ she/her, that girl #323
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.