How to say “milk” in 45 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.
- leche/ˈlet͡ʃe/ Spanish
- حليب/ħa.liːb/ Arabic
- दूध/d̪uːd̪ʱ/ Hindi
- γάλα[ˈɣala] Greek
- חלב/χaˈlav/ Hebrew
- რძე[ɾd͡ze̞] Georgian
“milk” in Spanish: leche · French: lait · German: milch · Italian: latte · Portuguese: leite · Arabic: حليب · Hindi: दूध · Turkish: süt
It is commonest in Tamil, where பால் is the 326th most used word.
Milk in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans melk/mɛlk/ #492
- Albanian qumësht/ˈcuməʃt/ very, as milk #1,490
- Arabic حليب/ħa.liːb/ #2,127
- Basque esne/es̺ne/ #1,157
- Bengali সর/ʃɔɾ/ top layer of milk; cream or yogurt #864
- Bulgarian мляко[ˈmlʲa̟ko] #1,435
- Catalan llet[ˈʎet] #1,601
- Chinese 牛奶/ni̯oʊ̯³⁵ naɪ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/ cow's milk #814
- Croatian mlijeko/mljěːko/ #1,940
- Czech mléko[ˈmlɛːko] #2,355
- Danish mælk/ˈmɛlˀɡ/ #2,061
- Dutch melk/mɛlk/ #1,751
- Esperanto lakton/ˈlakton/ #1,585
- Estonian piima/ˈpiːmɑ/ #1,457
- French lait/lɛ/ #1,518
- Galician leite/ˈlejte/ #1,116
- Georgian რძე[ɾd͡ze̞] #928
- German milch/mɪlç/ #1,915
- Greek γάλα[ˈɣala] #1,459
- Hebrew חלב/χaˈlav/ #1,254
- Hindi दूध/d̪uːd̪ʱ/ #1,880
- Hungarian fejem[ˈfɛjɛm] to milk #1,662
- Indonesian susu/ˈsusu/ #1,438
- Italian latte/ˈlat.te/ #1,663
- Korean 우유[uju] cow's milk #1,430
- Latvian pienu/ˈpieːnu/ #2,458
- Lithuanian pienas[¹ˈpʲiɛnɐs] #2,363
- Macedonian млеко[ˈmlɛkɔ] #1,215
- Malay o[o] with sugar and no milk added #889
- Malayalam പാൽ/paːl/ #1,587
- Norwegian melk/mɛlk/ #2,099
- Portuguese leite/ˈlej.t͡ʃi/ #1,673
- Romanian lapte/ˈlap.te/ #1,523
- Serbian mleko/mlěːko/ #1,889
- Slovak mlieko/ˈmli̯ɛkɔ/ #1,021
- Slovenian mleko/mlèːkɔ/ #761
- Spanish leche/ˈlet͡ʃe/ #1,451
- Swedish mjölk/mjœlk/ #2,177
- Tagalog gatas/ˈɡatas/ #1,528
- Tamil பால்/pɑːl/ milk, dairy #326
- Telugu పాలు/paːlu/ #1,173
- Turkish süt/ˈsyt/ #1,483
- Ukrainian молоко[mɔɫɔˈkɔ] #2,035
- Urdu دودھ/d̪uːd̪ʱ/ #616
- Vietnamese sữa[sɨə˦ˀ˥] #1,423
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.