How to say “money” in 48 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.
- dinero/diˈneɾo/ Spanish
- деньги[ˈdʲenʲɡʲɪ] Russian
- 돈[to̞(ː)n] Korean
- धन/d̪ʱən/ Hindi
- λεφτά/leˈfta/ Greek
- অর্থ/ɔɾt̪ʰo/ Bengali
“money” in Spanish: dinero · German: geld · Italian: soldi · Portuguese: dinheiro · Korean: 돈 · Russian: деньги · Hindi: धन · Turkish: para
It is commonest in Telugu, where డబ్బు is the 62nd most used word.
Money in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans geld/χɛlt/ #180
- Arabic نقود/nuquːd/ cash, ready money #1,016
- Basque diru/diɾu/ #253
- Bengali অর্থ/ɔɾt̪ʰo/ #482
- Bosnian novac/nǒʋat͡s/ #226
- Bulgarian пари[ˈpari] #183
- Catalan diners[diˈnes] #229
- Chinese 一票/i⁵⁵⁻³⁵ pʰi̯ɑʊ̯⁵¹/ a sum of money #2,180
- Croatian novac/nǒʋat͡s/ #232
- Czech peníze[ˈpɛɲiːzɛ] #266
- Danish penge/pɛŋə/ #200
- Dutch geld/ɣɛlt/ #176
- English pay/peɪ/ To give money or other compensation to in… #381
- Esperanto monon/ˈmonon/ #332
- Estonian raha/ˈrɑhɑ/ #168
- Finnish rahaa/ˈrahaː/ #290
- Galician cartos/ˈkaɾtos/ #235
- Georgian დახმარება[d̥äχmäɾe̞bä] Money given to people from the government to… #256
- German geld/ɡɛlt/ #190
- Greek λεφτά/leˈfta/ money, cash #241
- Hindi धन/d̪ʱən/ #1,100
- Hungarian pénzt[ˈpeːnst] #330
- Indonesian uang/ˈuaŋ/ #196
- Italian soldi/ˈsɔl.di/ #229
- Korean 돈[to̞(ː)n] #202
- Latvian naudu/ˈnaudu/ #191
- Lithuanian pinigai[pʲɪnʲɪ²ˈɡɐɪˑ] #378
- Macedonian пари[ˈpaɾi] #161
- Malay wang/ˈwaŋ/ #294
- Malayalam പണം/pɐɳɐm/ #78
- Norwegian penger/peŋːer/ #226
- Persian پول[pʰuːl̥] #113
- Polish pieniądze/pjɛˈɲɔn.d͡zɛ/ money; coin, banknote #313
- Portuguese dinheiro/d͡ʒĩˈɲe(j).ɾu/ #167
- Romanian bani/banʲ/ money; coin #227
- Russian деньги[ˈdʲenʲɡʲɪ] #222
- Serbian novac/nǒʋat͡s/ #235
- Slovak peniaze/peɲɪ̯aze/ #172
- Slovenian denar/dɛnàːr/ #137
- Spanish dinero/diˈneɾo/ #163
- Swedish pengar/ˈpɛŋːar/ #207
- Tagalog pera/ˈpeɾa/ money; cash #371
- Tamil பணம்/pɐɳɐm/ #83
- Telugu డబ్బు/ˈɖabbu/ #62
- Turkish para/paˈɾa/ #177
- Ukrainian гроші[ˈɦrɔʃʲi] #220
- Urdu بیعانہ/bɛː.(ʔ)ɑː.nɑ(ː)/ earnest money; deposit #2,153
- Vietnamese tiền[tiən˨˩] #180
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.