How to say “kind” in 53 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.
- amable/aˈmable/ Spanish
- 一種/i⁵⁵⁻⁵¹ ʈ͡ʂʊŋ²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/ Chinese
- قسم/qɪsm/ Urdu
“kind” in Spanish: amable · German: art · Italian: genere · Portuguese: tipos · Chinese: 一種 · Turkish: tür
It is commonest in Urdu, where قسم is the 150th most used word.
Kind in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans soort/ˈsʊərt/ sort, kind #458
- Albanian lloj/ɫɔj/ sort, kind, type #359
- Arabic أي/ʔajj/ which ...? what ...? what kind of ...? #44
- Armenian ինչպիսի/int͡ʃʰpiˈsi/ what, what kind of #399
- Basque mota/mota/ type, kind, class #423
- Bengali দাও/d̪ao/ a kind of big knife #57
- Bosnian kakav/kǎkaːʋ/ what kind of #345
- Bulgarian какъв[kɐˈkɤf] what, what kind of, what sort of, what type of #216
- Catalan tipus[ˈti.pus] type, sort, kind #411
- Chinese 一種/i⁵⁵⁻⁵¹ ʈ͡ʂʊŋ²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/ kind; sort; type #1,218
- Croatian kakav/kǎkaːʋ/ what kind of #375
- Czech milý[ˈmɪliː] #1,215
- Danish ligesom[ˈlisʌm] sort of, kind of, as it were #277
- Dutch soort/soːrt/ sort, kind #389
- English favor/ˈfeɪ.vɚ/ A kind or helpful deed; an instance of… #1,168
- Esperanto kia/ˈkia/ what kind of, which kind of #110
- Estonian mingi/ˈmiŋɡ̊i/ some, some kind of #250
- Finnish kiltti/ˈkiltːi/ kind, nice #421
- French genre/ʒɑ̃ʁ/ like, kind of #317
- Galician caste/ˈkaste/ species, race or kind #1,222
- Georgian როგორი[ɾo̞ɡo̞ɾi] what kind of #168
- German art/aːrt/ kind, sort, type #471
- Greek κάπως/ˈka.pos/ somewhat, kind of, a bit #636
- Hebrew לשם/ˈleʃem/ A kind of stone #210
- Hindi तरह/t̪ə.ɾəɦ/ type, kind #48
- Hungarian olyan[ˈojɒn] such a/an …, that kind of #47
- Icelandic konar[ˈkʰɔːnar] kind, type #449
- Indonesian jenis/d͡ʒəˈnis/ type, kind #666
- Italian genere/ˈd͡ʒɛ.ne.re/ #511
- Korean 무슨[musʰɯn] what, what kind of #18
- Latvian kāds[kɑ̟ːt̪s̪] what, what kind #72
- Lithuanian kažkoks/kɐʒˈkoːks/ of some kind, some kind of #453
- Macedonian каков[ˈkakɔf] what kind of, what type of #274
- Malay arak/ˈarak/ any kind of liquor, spirits, alcoholic… #1,326
- Malayalam ഇത്തരം/it̪t̪ɐɾɐm/ this kind, thus #210
- Norwegian snill/snɪlː/ #199
- Persian نوع[nówʔ] type, kind, sort #555
- Polish rodzaju/rɔˈd͡za.ju/ kind, type #1,316
- Portuguese tipos/ˈtʃipus/ kind; sort; type #712
- Romanian fel/ˈfel/ sort, type, kind #142
- Russian такой[tɐˈkoj] such, such, that/this kind/sort/type of,… #160
- Serbian kakav/kǎkaːʋ/ what kind of #334
- Slovak milý/miliː/ #593
- Slovenian prijazen/prijàːzən/ #474
- Spanish amable/aˈmable/ kind, amiable, gracious #900
- Swedish snäll/snɛlː/ kind, nice #600
- Tagalog uri/ˈʔuɾiʔ/ type; class; kind #485
- Tamil எந்த/ɛnd̪ɐ/ which, what, what sort of, what kind of #57
- Telugu బంతి/ˈbanti/ a ball of any kind #409
- Turkish tür/tyɾ/ kind, variety #491
- Ukrainian який[jɐˈkɪi̯] what, which, what kind of #133
- Urdu قسم/qɪsm/ kind, type, category, brand #150
- Vietnamese loại[lwaːj˧˨ʔ] species, kind, type, category, sort #391
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.