How to say “kiss” in 45 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 Afrikaans, where soen is the 479th most used word.
- Afrikaans soen #479
- Albanian puthje #1,198
- Arabic قبلة #1,150
- Armenian համբույր #706
- Basque musu #480
- Bosnian poljubac a kiss #1,574
- Bulgarian целувка #1,573
- Catalan petó #1,541
- Chinese 接吻 to kiss #1,313
- Croatian poljubac a kiss #1,824
- Danish kys to kiss #1,158
- Dutch kussen kiss of peace #1,543
- English lips To kiss, to smooch #2,126
- Esperanto kison #1,665
- Estonian musi #1,413
- French baiser to kiss #1,167
- Georgian კოცნა #907
- German kuss #1,900
- Greek φιλί #1,649
- Hebrew נשיקה #1,404
- Hindi चुंबन the act of kissing; a kiss #1,057
- Icelandic kyssa to kiss #833
- Indonesian mencium to kiss #1,152
- Italian bacio #1,575
- Korean 키스 romantic kiss #883
- Latvian skūpstu #2,261
- Lithuanian pabučiuoti to give a kiss #1,628
- Macedonian бакнеж #1,449
- Malay cium to kiss #1,251
- Malayalam ചുംബനം #1,135
- Norwegian kyss to kiss #1,164
- Persian بوس #1,482
- Portuguese beijo #1,721
- Romanian sărut #1,612
- Russian поцелуй #1,842
- Serbian poljubac a kiss #1,610
- Slovak bozk #1,204
- Slovenian poljub #790
- Spanish beso #1,422
- Swedish kyss to kiss passionately or with great affection,… #1,664
- Tagalog halikan to kiss; to give a kiss to #1,007
- Tamil முத்தம் kissing, a kiss #649
- Telugu ముద్దు #555
- Turkish öpücük #1,935
- Urdu بوسہ #1,474
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.