How to say “island” in 44 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.
- isla/ˈisla/ Spanish
- остров[ˈostrəf] Russian
- جزيرة/d͡ʒa.ziː.ra/ Arabic
- 섬[sʰɘ(ː)m] Korean
- द्वीप/d̪ʋiːp/ Hindi
- νησί/niˈsi/ Greek
“island” in Spanish: isla · French: île · German: insel · Italian: isola · Portuguese: ilha · Korean: 섬 · Russian: остров · Arabic: جزيرة
It is commonest in Malay, where pulau is the 626th most used word.
Island in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans eiland/ˈəi̯.lant/ #1,008
- Albanian ishull/ˈiʃuɫ/ #1,005
- Arabic جزيرة/d͡ʒa.ziː.ra/ #1,003
- Armenian կղզիներ/kəʁziˈneɾ/ island, isle #1,642
- Basque uharte/uharte/ #1,084
- Bengali দ্বীপ/d̪ip/ #1,195
- Bosnian ostrvo/ôstr̩ʋo/ #1,976
- Bulgarian ада[ɐˈda] #1,052
- Catalan illa[ˈi.ʎə] #730
- Croatian otok/ǒtok/ #1,758
- Czech ostrov[ˈostrof] #1,900
- Danish øen/ˈøːˀən/ #1,600
- Dutch eiland/ˈɛi̯.lɑnt/ #1,320
- Esperanto insulo/inˈsulo/ #1,350
- Estonian saar/sɑːr/ #1,743
- French île/il/ #1,457
- Galician illa/ˈiɟa/ #782
- German insel/ˈɪnzəl/ an island, an isle #1,462
- Greek νησί/niˈsi/ #1,195
- Hindi द्वीप/d̪ʋiːp/ #1,532
- Icelandic eyja[ˈeija] #2,409
- Indonesian pulau/ˈpulau̯/ #911
- Italian isola/ˈi.zo.la/ island, isle #1,567
- Korean 섬[sʰɘ(ː)m] island, islet or insular #1,275
- Latvian salas/ˈsalas/ #1,165
- Lithuanian sala[sɐˈlɐ] isle, island #1,231
- Macedonian остров[ˈɔstrɔf] #1,202
- Malay pulau/ˈpulaw/ #626
- Malayalam ദ്വീപ്/d̪ʋiːbɨ/ #662
- Persian جزیره[d͡ʒæ.ziː.ɹé] #1,394
- Portuguese ilha/ˈi.ʎɐ/ #1,234
- Romanian insula[ˈinsula] #1,519
- Russian остров[ˈostrəf] #2,448
- Serbian ostrvo/ôstr̩ʋo/ #1,740
- Slovak ostrov/ɔstrɔv/ #1,018
- Slovenian otok/ɔ̀ːtɔk/ #656
- Spanish isla/ˈisla/ #1,317
- Swedish ön/øːn/ island, isle #1,562
- Tagalog isla/ˈʔisla/ #1,038
- Tamil தீவு/t̪iːʋɯ/ #1,556
- Turkish ada[ada] island, isle, a contiguous area of land… #2,426
- Ukrainian острів[ˈɔstʲrʲiu̯] #1,293
- Urdu جزیرہ/d͡ʒə.ziː.ɾɑː/ #1,989
- Vietnamese đảo[ʔɗaːw˧˩] #836
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.