How to say “green” in 39 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.
- verde/ˈbeɾde/ Spanish
- أخضر/ʔax.dˤar/ Arabic
- 녹색[no̞ks͈ɛk̚] Korean
- हरा/ɦə.ɾɑː/ Hindi
- ירוק/jaˈʁok/ Hebrew
- მწვანე/mt͡sʼvanɛ/ Georgian
“green” in Spanish: verde · French: vert · Italian: verde · Portuguese: verde · Korean: 녹색 · Arabic: أخضر · Hindi: हरा · Turkish: yeşil
It is commonest in Tamil, where பச்சை is the 512th most used word.
Green in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans groen/χrun/ #900
- Albanian gjelbër/ˈɟɛlbəɾ/ #1,755
- Arabic أخضر/ʔax.dˤar/ green; verdant #2,342
- Basque berde/berde/ #944
- Bengali সবুজ/ʃobud͡ʒ/ #734
- Catalan verd[ˈbɛrt] #1,751
- Danish grønne/ˈɡʁɐnə/ #1,940
- Dutch groene/ˈɣru.nə/ #2,015
- English kelly/ˈkɛli/ Kelly green #1,956
- Esperanto verda/ˈverda/ green in color #1,041
- Estonian roheline/ˈroheline/ #1,307
- French vert/vɛʁ/ #1,947
- Galician verde/ˈbeɾde/ #1,117
- Georgian მწვანე/mt͡sʼvanɛ/ #1,202
- Greek πράσινο/ˈpɾa.si.no/ the green color/colour #1,928
- Hebrew ירוק/jaˈʁok/ #1,391
- Hindi हरा/ɦə.ɾɑː/ #1,011
- Hungarian zöld[ˈzøld] #1,486
- Icelandic grænn[ˈkraitn̥] #2,085
- Indonesian hijau/ˈhid͡ʒau̯/ #1,201
- Italian verde/ˈver.de/ #1,581
- Korean 녹색[no̞ks͈ɛk̚] #1,382
- Lithuanian žalia/ʒɐˈlʲɐ/ #1,465
- Macedonian зелено[ˈzɛlɛnɔ] in green #2,382
- Malay hijau[hi.d͡ʒau̯] #905
- Malayalam പച്ച/pɐt͡ʃt͡ʃɐ/ green colour #621
- Norwegian grønne[ˈɡɾœ̂n.nɛ̝] #2,127
- Persian سبز[sæbz] #943
- Portuguese verde/ˈveʁ.d͡ʒi/ #1,561
- Romanian verde/ˈver.de/ #1,275
- Slovak zelená/ˈzɛlɛnaː/ #1,694
- Slovenian zelen/zɛlɛ́n/ #1,685
- Spanish verde/ˈbeɾde/ #1,561
- Swedish gröna/ˈɡrøːna/ #2,265
- Tamil பச்சை/pɐtʃtʃɐɪ̯/ #512
- Telugu ఆకుపచ్చ/aːkupat͡ɕːa/ green, leaf green #569
- Turkish yeşil/jeˈʃil/ #1,038
- Urdu سبز/səbz/ #635
- Vietnamese hành[hajŋ̟˨˩] green onion #260
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.