How to say “neck” in 39 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 Croatian, where vrata is the 251st most used word.
- Afrikaans nek #778
- Albanian qafë #1,970
- Arabic عنق #2,113
- Basque lepo #1,329
- Bengali গলা #708
- Bosnian vrata #262
- Catalan coll #826
- Chinese 脖子 #649
- Croatian vrata #251
- Czech krku #1,377
- Dutch nek nape of the neck #1,172
- English throat The front part of the neck #1,245
- Estonian kael #2,380
- French cou #1,586
- Galician pescozo back of the neck; nape; scruff #1,244
- German hals #1,286
- Greek λαιμό neck, throat #1,053
- Hindi गले neck; throat #837
- Icelandic háls neck, throat #1,482
- Indonesian leher #1,902
- Italian collo #1,399
- Korean 목 #902
- Latvian kaklu #2,072
- Macedonian врат #2,241
- Malay leher #994
- Malayalam കഴുത്ത് #1,019
- Norwegian halsen a neck #1,326
- Persian گردن #774
- Portuguese pescoço #1,403
- Serbian vrata #269
- Slovak krku #786
- Slovenian vrat #359
- Spanish cuello #1,288
- Swedish halsen #1,506
- Tagalog leeg #1,003
- Tamil கழுத்து #1,078
- Telugu మెడ #553
- Turkish boyun #2,233
- Urdu گردن #919
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.