How to say “jail” in 30 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 Macedonian, where затвор is the 355th most used word.
- Albanian burg jail, prison #455
- Armenian բանտ prison, jail #1,682
- Basque espetxe jail, gaol; prison #1,261
- Bengali কারাগার prison, jail #1,751
- Bosnian zatvor prison, jail #735
- Bulgarian затвор prison, jail #1,415
- Chinese 牢房 prison cell; jail cell #1,739
- Croatian zatvor prison, jail #756
- Czech vězení prison, jail #600
- Dutch gevangenis a jail, a prison; especially an institution… #653
- Estonian vangla prison, jail #1,384
- Galician cárcere jail, prison #1,154
- German gefängnis prison, jail #776
- Greek φυλακή prison, jail, gaol #481
- Hebrew כלא prison, jail #1,508
- Hindi जेल jail, the slammer #523
- Indonesian penjara prison, jail #492
- Italian prigione jail, prison #688
- Korean 감옥 jail, prison #929
- Macedonian затвор prison, jail #355
- Malay penjara #408
- Malayalam ജയിൽ #1,197
- Persian زندان jail, prison #385
- Romanian închisoare prison, jail #650
- Serbian zatvor prison, jail #768
- Swedish fängelse a prison, a jail #816
- Tagalog bilangguan prison; jail #696
- Tamil சிறை jail, prison, imprisonment #1,162
- Turkish hapis prison, jail #2,238
- Urdu جیل jail, the slammer #488
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.