How to say “night” 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 Korean, where 거야 is the 9th most used word.
- Afrikaans gisteraand last night; yesterday evening #665
- Albanian natën #253
- Arabic ليلة a night #160
- Armenian գիշեր #78
- Basque gauean #196
- Bengali রাত #386
- Bosnian noć night, nighttime #299
- Bulgarian нощ #231
- Catalan nit #117
- Chinese 晚上 evening; night #95
- Croatian noć night, nighttime #300
- Czech noc night, nighttime #271
- Danish nat #494
- Dutch nacht #457
- English tonight During the night following the current day;… #314
- Esperanto nokton #337
- Estonian ööd #509
- Finnish yötä #542
- French nuit #204
- Galician noite night; period of dark, when the sun is below… #113
- Georgian ღამე #396
- German nacht #215
- Greek βράδυ at night, by night, nightly #263
- Hebrew לילה #278
- Hindi रात #164
- Hungarian éjjel at night #473
- Icelandic nótt #971
- Indonesian malam #98
- Italian notte #285
- Korean 거야 last night, yesterday evening #9
- Latvian nakti #475
- Lithuanian naktį #232
- Macedonian ноќ night, nighttime #214
- Malay malam #111
- Malayalam രാത്രി #79
- Norwegian natt #337
- Persian شب #127
- Polish nocy night, nighttime #306
- Portuguese noite #119
- Romanian noapte #268
- Russian ночь night, nighttime #380
- Serbian noć night, nighttime #277
- Slovak noc night, nighttime #163
- Slovenian nočem night, nighttime #147
- Spanish noche after dark, at night, nocturnally #136
- Swedish natt #439
- Tagalog gabi evening; night #116
- Tamil இரவு #119
- Telugu రాత్రి #72
- Turkish gece at night, in the night, by night #109
- Ukrainian ніч night, nighttime #485
- Urdu رات night, nighttime #106
- Vietnamese đêm #336
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.