How to say “nation” in 35 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 Norwegian, where folk is the 151st most used word.
- Afrikaans land country; nation #194
- Albanian kombi nation, people, community, folk #2,192
- Armenian ժողովուրդ nation, people, folk #1,723
- Bengali জাতি #1,248
- Bulgarian народ nation, people #2,029
- Catalan societat society; nation #1,651
- Chinese 國家 country; nation; state #1,411
- Dutch volk people, nation #1,102
- English country The territory of a nation; a sovereign state… #531
- Esperanto lando country, land, nation #321
- Galician nación #1,088
- Georgian ერთ country, nation #158
- German volk people, nation, folk, tribe, race #1,302
- Greek φυλή race, tribe, nation, breed #2,452
- Hebrew העם singular definite form of עַם: the nation,… #1,676
- Hindi देश nation, country #408
- Indonesian negara country, state, nation, polity #428
- Korean 나랑 country, nation, kingdom #214
- Latvian tautas people, nation #1,815
- Lithuanian tauta people, folk, nation #1,758
- Macedonian народ people, nation #842
- Malay negara country; nation; sovereign state #355
- Malayalam നാട് state, country, nation, kingdom #649
- Norwegian folk a people, nation #151
- Persian ملت nation, people #1,383
- Portuguese país country; nation #577
- Slovak národ people, nation #1,469
- Slovenian narod #881
- Swedish staten A state; a nation #2,409
- Tagalog bansa #290
- Tamil நாடு country, kingdom, nation #567
- Telugu అంతర్జాతీయ of or pertaining to more than one nation #1,026
- Turkish millet #556
- Urdu قوم #739
- Vietnamese tộc people; nation; ethnicity #997
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.