How to say “island” in 44 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 Malay, where pulau is the 626th most used word.
- Afrikaans eiland #1,008
- Albanian ishull #1,005
- Arabic جزيرة #1,003
- Armenian կղզիներ island, isle #1,642
- Basque uharte #1,084
- Bengali দ্বীপ #1,195
- Bosnian ostrvo #1,976
- Bulgarian ада #1,052
- Catalan illa #730
- Croatian otok #1,758
- Czech ostrov #1,900
- Danish øen #1,600
- Dutch eiland #1,320
- Esperanto insulo #1,350
- Estonian saar #1,743
- French île #1,457
- Galician illa #782
- German insel an island, an isle #1,462
- Greek νησί #1,195
- Hindi द्वीप #1,532
- Icelandic eyja #2,409
- Indonesian pulau #911
- Italian isola island, isle #1,567
- Korean 섬 island, islet or insular #1,275
- Latvian salas #1,165
- Lithuanian sala isle, island #1,231
- Macedonian остров #1,202
- Malay pulau #626
- Malayalam ദ്വീപ് #662
- Persian جزیره #1,394
- Portuguese ilha #1,234
- Romanian insula #1,519
- Russian остров #2,448
- Serbian ostrvo #1,740
- Slovak ostrov #1,018
- Slovenian otok #656
- Spanish isla #1,317
- Swedish ön island, isle #1,562
- Tagalog isla #1,038
- Tamil தீவு #1,556
- Turkish ada island, isle, a contiguous area of land… #2,426
- Ukrainian острів #1,293
- Urdu جزیرہ #1,989
- Vietnamese đảo #836
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.