How to say “mother” in 53 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.
- madre/ˈmadɾe/ Spanish
- мать[matʲ] Russian
- والدة/waː.li.da/ Arabic
- 어머니[ʌ̹mʌ̹ni] Korean
- माँ/mɑ̃ː/ Hindi
- μητέρα/miˈtera/ Greek
“mother” in Spanish: madre · French: mère · German: mutter · Italian: madre · Portuguese: mãe · Korean: 어머니 · Russian: мать · Arabic: والدة
It is commonest in Georgian, where დედა is the 71st most used word.
Mother in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans ma/ˈmɑː/ mom, mother #108
- Albanian nëna/nəna/ #394
- Arabic والدة/waː.li.da/ #1,267
- Armenian մայր/mɑjɾ/ #312
- Basque ama/ama/ #74
- Bengali মা/ma/ mother, Mom #104
- Bosnian majka/mâːjka/ #311
- Bulgarian майка[ˈmajkɐ] #149
- Catalan mare[ˈma.ɾə] #138
- Chinese 父母/fu⁵¹ mu²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/ parents; mother and father; mum and dad #185
- Croatian majka/mâːjka/ #360
- Czech matka[ˈmatka] #416
- Danish mors/ˈmɒːs/ #1,054
- Dutch moeder/ˈmu.dər/ mother, female parent #183
- English mom/mɑm/ #257
- Esperanto patrino/paˈtrino/ #182
- Estonian ema/ˈemɑ/ #103
- Finnish äiti/ˈæi̯ti/ #143
- French mère/mɛʁ/ #173
- Galician nai/ˈnaj/ #162
- Georgian დედა[d̥e̞dä] #71
- German mutter/ˈmʊtər/ #194
- Greek μητέρα/miˈtera/ #223
- Hebrew אמא/ˈ(ʔ)i.ma/ #125
- Hindi माँ/mɑ̃ː/ #165
- Hungarian anya[ˈɒɲɒ] #208
- Icelandic móðir[ˈmouːðɪr] #1,597
- Indonesian ibu/ˈibu/ #135
- Italian madre/ˈma.dre/ #198
- Korean 어머니[ʌ̹mʌ̹ni] #365
- Latvian māte[ˈmāːtɛ] #469
- Lithuanian mama/mɐˈmɐ/ #109
- Macedonian мајка[ˈmajka] #132
- Malay ibu/ˈibu/ #153
- Malayalam അമ്മ/ɐmmɐ/ #95
- Norwegian mamma/mama/ #207
- Persian مادر[mɒː.d̪ǽɹ] mother, mama #258
- Polish mamo/ˈma.mɔ/ mum, mom, mother #283
- Portuguese mãe/ˈmɐ̃j̃/ #115
- Romanian mama/ˈmama/ mum, mom, mother #150
- Russian мать[matʲ] #313
- Serbian majka/mâːjka/ #313
- Slovak mať/mac/ #103
- Slovenian mati/màːti/ #286
- Spanish madre/ˈmadɾe/ #174
- Swedish mamma/²mamːa/ mom, mum, mother #124
- Tagalog i/ʔi/ mother of #228
- Tamil அம்மா/ɐmːɑː/ #113
- Telugu తల్లి/t̪alːi/ #131
- Turkish anne/ɑnːe/ #142
- Ukrainian мати[ˈmate] #258
- Urdu ماں/mɑː̃/ #103
- Vietnamese mẹ[mɛ˧˨ʔ] I/me, your mother #90
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.