How to say “north” in 37 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 Dutch, where n is the 35th most used word.
- Afrikaans noord #2,044
- Albanian veri #872
- Armenian հյուսիս #1,732
- Basque ipar #761
- Bulgarian север #1,552
- Catalan nord #443
- Chinese 北方 #1,299
- Czech severní north, northern #1,914
- Danish nord toward the north, northwards #1,833
- Dutch n abbreviation of noord; north #35
- English north Toward the north; northward; northerly #1,055
- Estonian põhja #833
- French nord #1,164
- Galician norte #469
- Georgian ჩრდილოეთის #129
- German norden #2,228
- Greek βόρεια north, northerly #1,389
- Hebrew צפון #1,769
- Hindi उत्तर north, northern #650
- Indonesian utara #708
- Italian nord #1,264
- Korean 로 North Korea standard form of 노 #641
- Macedonian север #1,088
- Malay utara #637
- Malayalam വടക്ക് #644
- Norwegian nord #1,465
- Persian شمال the north #722
- Portuguese norte #979
- Romanian nord #1,008
- Slovak sever #1,081
- Slovenian sever #988
- Spanish norte north, northern #1,095
- Tagalog hilaga #1,474
- Tamil வட north, northern #491
- Turkish kuzey #1,018
- Urdu شمال #903
- Vietnamese bắc north; northern #809
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.