How to say “many” in 51 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.
- 很多/xən²¹⁴⁻²¹ tu̯ɔ⁵⁵/ Chinese
- ბევრი[b̥e̞vɾi] Georgian
- বহু/bohu/ Bengali
- நிறைய/nɪrɐɪ̯jɐ/ Tamil
- చాల/t͡ɕaːla/ Telugu
- بہت/bə.ɦoːt̪/ Urdu
“many” in Chinese: 很多
It is commonest in Bulgarian, where много is the 36th most used word.
Many in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans hoeveel/huːfeːl/ how much, how many #320
- Arabic كم/kam/ how many?, how much? #96
- Armenian քանի/ˈkʰɑni/ how many? #103
- Basque franko/franko/ a lot, many #1,754
- Bengali বহু/bohu/ many, much, numerous #1,096
- Bosnian koliko/kolǐko/ how much, how many #112
- Bulgarian много[ˈmnɔɡo] many, a lot of #36
- Catalan quant[ˈkwan] how many; how much #307
- Chinese 很多/xən²¹⁴⁻²¹ tu̯ɔ⁵⁵/ many; much; a lot #51
- Croatian koliko/kolǐko/ how much, how many #115
- Czech kolik[ˈkolɪk] how much, how many #312
- Danish mange[ˈmɑŋə] #146
- Dutch veel/veːl/ many, much, a lot of #112
- English often/ˈɔːfən/ Frequently; many times on different occasions #959
- Esperanto multaj/ˈmultai̯/ many, a lot #336
- Estonian palju/ˈpɑlju/ many, a lot #69
- Finnish monta/ˈmontɑ/ #609
- French peu/pø/ little; not very much/many #115
- Galician moitos/ˈmojtʊs/ much, many, a lot of, lots of #252
- Georgian ბევრი[b̥e̞vɾi] many, much #144
- German manche/ˈmançə/ many a; many; some #1,214
- Greek πόσο/ˈposo/ how much, how many #181
- Hebrew כמה/ˈka.ma/ How much, how many #59
- Hungarian sok[ˈʃok] much, many #108
- Icelandic fleiri/ˈfleiːrɪ/ many, a lot of #274
- Indonesian banyak/ˈbaɲaʔ/ #73
- Italian quanto/ˈkwan.to/ how much, how many, however much, however many #138
- Korean 얼마나[ʌ̹ɭma̠na̠] how long, how much, how many #97
- Latvian daudzi[dāūdzi] #669
- Lithuanian kiek[¹ˈkʲiɛk] how much, how many #107
- Macedonian многумина[mnɔˈɡumina] #1,684
- Malay banyak/ˈbaɲak/ many, much, a lot #89
- Malayalam എത്ര/et̪ɾɐ/ How many #68
- Norwegian mange/ˈmɑŋə/ #154
- Persian چند[t͡ʃʰæn̪d̪̥] how many, how much #89
- Polish wiele/ˈvjɛ.lɛ/ many, much #211
- Portuguese muito/ˈmũj̃.tu/ much; many; a lot of; lots of #33
- Romanian spart/spart/ broken, fractured, broken into many pieces #1,573
- Russian сколько[ˈskolʲkə] how much, how many #203
- Serbian koliko/kolǐko/ how much, how many #111
- Slovak veľa/veʎa/ much, many #106
- Slovenian veliko/ʋɛlìːkɔ/ #83
- Spanish cuánto/ˈkwanto/ how much; how many #342
- Swedish många/²mɔŋa/ many; plural of mången #172
- Tagalog marami/maˈɾami/ many; plenty; much; abundant #149
- Tamil நிறைய/nɪrɐɪ̯jɐ/ many, a lot of #101
- Telugu చాల/t͡ɕaːla/ #1,605
- Turkish çok[tʃɔk] much, many, plenty, a lot #10
- Ukrainian скільки[ˈsʲkʲilʲke] how much, how many #200
- Urdu بہت/bə.ɦoːt̪/ many, much #44
- Vietnamese nhiều[ɲiəw˨˩] many, much; a lot #107
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.