How to say “half” 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.
- medio/ˈmedjo/ Spanish
- половина[pəɫɐˈvʲinə] Russian
- نصف/nisˤf/ Arabic
- 반[pa̠(ː)n] Korean
- आधा/ɑː.d̪ʱɑː/ Hindi
- μισό/miˈso/ Greek
“half” in Spanish: medio · French: moitié · German: hälfte · Italian: mezzo · Portuguese: metade · Korean: 반 · Russian: половина · Arabic: نصف
It is commonest in Serbian, where po is the 106th most used word.
Half in other languages, A to Z
- Albanian gjysma/ɟysma/ a half, ¹⁄₂ #1,023
- Arabic نصف/nisˤf/ half, a half, semi-, hemi- #282
- Armenian կես/kes/ #497
- Basque erdi/erdi/ #387
- Bengali আধ/ad̪ʱ/ #2,042
- Bosnian po/pôː/ #108
- Bulgarian пол[pɔɫ] #830
- Catalan meitat[məjˈtat] #787
- Chinese 一半/i⁵⁵⁻³⁵ pän⁵¹/ one half; half #412
- Croatian po/pôː/ #113
- Czech půl[ˈpuːl] #674
- Danish halv[ˈhalˀ] #868
- Dutch half/ɦɑlf/ half before the next whole #731
- Esperanto duono/duˈono/ #891
- Estonian pooled/ˈpoːled̥/ #1,724
- Finnish puoli/ˈpuo̯li/ #709
- French moitié/mwa.tje/ #870
- Galician metade[meˈtaðɪ] a half #853
- Georgian ნახევარი[näχe̞väɾi] #921
- German hälfte/ˈhɛlftə/ half; fifty percent of something #1,404
- Greek μισό/miˈso/ half, ¹⁄₂ #579
- Hebrew חצי/ˈχet͡si/ #437
- Hindi आधा/ɑː.d̪ʱɑː/ #1,087
- Hungarian fél[ˈfeːl] #424
- Icelandic hálfur[ˈhaulvʏr] #1,807
- Indonesian setengah[sə.tə.ˈŋah] #563
- Italian mezzo/ˈmɛd.d͡zo/ half, middle #548
- Korean 반[pa̠(ː)n] #584
- Latvian pusi/ˈpusi/ #481
- Lithuanian pusė[ˈpʊsʲeː] #602
- Macedonian половина[pɔˈɫɔvina] #453
- Malay separuh/səˈparuh/ #716
- Malayalam പകുതി/pɐɡud̪i/ #330
- Norwegian halv/ˈhɑl/ #1,013
- Persian نصف[nesf] #672
- Polish pół/ˈpuw/ #685
- Portuguese metade/meˈta.d͡ʒi/ #916
- Romanian jumătate/ʒu.məˈta.te/ #562
- Russian половина[pəɫɐˈvʲinə] #2,411
- Serbian po/pôː/ #106
- Slovak polovica/ˈpoloˌvitsa/ #998
- Slovenian polovica/pɔlɔʋìːt͡sa/ #819
- Spanish medio/ˈmedjo/ half, incompletely #513
- Swedish hälften/ˈhɛlftɛn/ half, one of two roughly equal parts #1,321
- Tagalog kalahati/kalaˈhatiʔ/ #614
- Tamil அரை/ɐɾɐɪ̯/ #413
- Turkish yarım/jaˈɾɯm/ #747
- Ukrainian половина[pɔɫɔˈʋɪnɐ] #1,674
- Urdu آدھی/ɑː.d̪ʱiː/ #472
- Vietnamese buổi[ʔɓuəj˧˩] half a day #436
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.