How to say “mother” in 53 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 Georgian, where დედა is the 71st most used word.
- Afrikaans ma mom, mother #108
- Albanian nëna #394
- Arabic والدة #1,267
- Armenian մայր #312
- Basque ama #74
- Bengali মা mother, Mom #104
- Bosnian majka #311
- Bulgarian майка #149
- Catalan mare #138
- Chinese 父母 parents; mother and father; mum and dad #185
- Croatian majka #360
- Czech matka #416
- Danish mors #1,054
- Dutch moeder mother, female parent #183
- English mom #257
- Esperanto patrino #182
- Estonian ema #103
- Finnish äiti #143
- French mère #173
- Galician nai #162
- Georgian დედა #71
- German mutter #194
- Greek μητέρα #223
- Hebrew אמא #125
- Hindi माँ #165
- Hungarian anya #208
- Icelandic móðir #1,597
- Indonesian ibu #135
- Italian madre #198
- Korean 어머니 #365
- Latvian māte #469
- Lithuanian mama #109
- Macedonian мајка #132
- Malay ibu #153
- Malayalam അമ്മ #95
- Norwegian mamma #207
- Persian مادر mother, mama #258
- Polish mamo mum, mom, mother #283
- Portuguese mãe #115
- Romanian mama mum, mom, mother #150
- Russian мать #313
- Serbian majka #313
- Slovak mať #103
- Slovenian mati #286
- Spanish madre #174
- Swedish mamma mom, mum, mother #124
- Tagalog i mother of #228
- Tamil அம்மா #113
- Telugu తల్లి #131
- Turkish anne #142
- Ukrainian мати #258
- Urdu ماں #103
- Vietnamese mẹ I/me, your mother #90
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.