How to say “law” in 50 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.
- ley/ˈlei/ Spanish
- закон[zɐˈkon] Russian
- 法律/fä²¹⁴⁻²¹ ly⁵¹/ Chinese
- 법[pʌ̹p̚] Korean
- δίκαιο/ˈðiceˌo/ Greek
- სამართალს[sämäɾtʰäls] Georgian
“law” in Spanish: ley · French: loi · Italian: leggi · Portuguese: direito · Chinese: 法律 · Korean: 법 · Russian: закон · Greek: δίκαιο
It is commonest in Slovenian, where prav is the 45th most used word.
Law in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans wet/vɛt/ #696
- Albanian ligji/liɟi/ #1,289
- Armenian դատարան/dɑtɑˈɾɑn/ court, court of law/justice #1,677
- Basque zuzenbide/s̻us̻embide/ #1,731
- Bengali আইন/ai̯n/ #497
- Bosnian zakon/zǎːkon/ law, rule #848
- Bulgarian закон[zɐˈkɔn] #1,835
- Catalan llei[ˈʎej] #702
- Chinese 法律/fä²¹⁴⁻²¹ ly⁵¹/ #334
- Croatian zakon/zǎːkon/ law, rule #833
- Czech právo[ˈpraːvo] #835
- Danish retten[ˈʁad̥n̩] justice, law #1,093
- Dutch wet/ʋɛt/ #977
- English lawyer/ˈlɔɪ.ɚ/ A professional person with a graduate law… #1,023
- Esperanto leĝo/ˈled͡ʒo/ #1,151
- Estonian seadus/ˈseɑ̯d̥us/ #1,420
- French loi/lwa/ #898
- Galician lei/lei/ #584
- Georgian სამართალს[sämäɾtʰäls] #1,292
- German polizei[ˌpo.liˈt͡saɪ̯] police; law enforcement #401
- Greek δίκαιο/ˈðiceˌo/ #1,304
- Hebrew דין/diːn/ judgement; law #527
- Hindi नियम/nɪ.jəm/ rule, law, principle, observance #1,220
- Hungarian törvény[ˈtørveːɲ] #1,602
- Icelandic lög[ˈlœːɣ] law or laws, statute #778
- Indonesian pengacara/pə.ŋaˈt͡ʃa.ra/ a professional person with a graduate law… #799
- Italian leggi/ˈlɛd.d͡ʒi/ #1,876
- Korean 법[pʌ̹p̚] #849
- Latvian tiesa/ˈtiesa/ court, court of law #570
- Lithuanian taisyklė[tɐɪ²ˈsʲiːklʲeː] rule, regulation, law #1,063
- Macedonian закон[ˈzakɔn] #1,097
- Malay hukum/ˈhukum/ #1,134
- Malayalam നിയമം/n̪ijamam/ #275
- Norwegian lover/ˈloːvər/ #521
- Persian قانون[qɒː.núːn] #428
- Polish prawa/ˈpra.va/ #749
- Portuguese direito/d͡ʒiˈɾej.tu/ #607
- Romanian legea[ˈled͡ʒe̯a] #1,190
- Russian закон[zɐˈkon] #1,489
- Serbian zakon/zǎːkon/ law, rule #868
- Slovenian prav/ˈpraːw/ #45
- Spanish ley/ˈlei/ #841
- Swedish lag/lɑːɡ/ #1,224
- Tagalog batas/baˈtas/ #911
- Tamil சட்டம்/tʃɐʈːɐm/ rule, order, law, act, condition, regulation,… #404
- Telugu లా/ˈlaː/ #964
- Turkish mahkeme/mah.ce.ˈme/ A court of law, court of justice, tribunal #1,236
- Ukrainian закон[zɐˈkɔn] #1,205
- Urdu قانون/qɑː.nuːn/ #560
- Vietnamese pháp[faːp̚˧˦] rule; law; standard; method #450
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.