How to say “kind” in 53 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 Korean, where 무슨 is the 18th most used word.
- Afrikaans soort sort, kind #458
- Albanian lloj sort, kind, type #359
- Arabic أي which ...? what ...? what kind of ...? #44
- Armenian ինչպիսի what, what kind of #399
- Basque mota type, kind, class #423
- Bengali দাও a kind of big knife #57
- Bosnian kakav what kind of #345
- Bulgarian какъв what, what kind of, what sort of, what type of #216
- Catalan tipus type, sort, kind #411
- Chinese 一種 kind; sort; type #1,218
- Croatian kakav what kind of #375
- Czech milý #1,215
- Danish ligesom sort of, kind of, as it were #277
- Dutch soort sort, kind #389
- English favor A kind or helpful deed; an instance of… #1,168
- Esperanto kia what kind of, which kind of #110
- Estonian mingi some, some kind of #250
- Finnish kiltti kind, nice #421
- French genre like, kind of #317
- Galician caste species, race or kind #1,222
- Georgian როგორი what kind of #168
- German art kind, sort, type #471
- Greek κάπως somewhat, kind of, a bit #636
- Hebrew לשם A kind of stone #210
- Hindi तरह type, kind #48
- Hungarian olyan such a/an …, that kind of #47
- Icelandic konar kind, type #449
- Indonesian jenis type, kind #666
- Italian genere #511
- Korean 무슨 what, what kind of #18
- Latvian kāds what, what kind #72
- Lithuanian kažkoks of some kind, some kind of #453
- Macedonian каков what kind of, what type of #274
- Malay arak any kind of liquor, spirits, alcoholic… #1,326
- Malayalam ഇത്തരം this kind, thus #210
- Norwegian snill #199
- Persian نوع type, kind, sort #555
- Polish rodzaju kind, type #1,316
- Portuguese tipos kind; sort; type #712
- Romanian fel sort, type, kind #142
- Russian такой such, such, that/this kind/sort/type of,… #160
- Serbian kakav what kind of #334
- Slovak milý #593
- Slovenian prijazen #474
- Spanish amable kind, amiable, gracious #900
- Swedish snäll kind, nice #600
- Tagalog uri type; class; kind #485
- Tamil எந்த which, what, what sort of, what kind of #57
- Telugu బంతి a ball of any kind #409
- Turkish tür kind, variety #491
- Ukrainian який what, which, what kind of #133
- Urdu قسم kind, type, category, brand #150
- Vietnamese loại species, kind, type, category, sort #391
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.