How to say “nothing” in 40 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.
- nada/ˈnada/ Spanish
- τίποτα/ˈti.po.ta/ Greek
- არაფერი[äɾäpʰe̞ɾi] Georgian
- ոչինչ/voˈt͡ʃʰint͡ʃʰ/ Armenian
- нічого[nʲiˈt͡ʃɔɦɔ] Ukrainian
“nothing” in Spanish: nada · French: rien · German: nichts · Italian: niente · Portuguese: nada · Greek: τίποτα
It is commonest in Tagalog, where wala is the 34th most used word.
Nothing in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans niks/nəks/ #73
- Albanian asgjë/asˈɟə/ #100
- Armenian ոչինչ/voˈt͡ʃʰint͡ʃʰ/ #90
- Basque ezer/es̻er/ anything, nothing #40
- Bosnian ništa/nîʃta/ #86
- Bulgarian нищо[ˈniʃto] #72
- Catalan res[ˈres] nothing, not anything #53
- Chinese 而已/ˀɤɻ³⁵ i²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/ that's all; nothing more; is all #142
- Croatian ništa/nîʃta/ #79
- Czech nic[ˈɲɪt͡s] #58
- Danish ingenting/ˈeŋənˌteŋˀ/ #374
- Dutch niets/nits/ #108
- Esperanto nenion/neˈnion/ #145
- Finnish mitään/ˈmitæːn/ anything, any; nothing, no #45
- French rien/ʁjɛ̃/ #77
- Galician nada[ˈnaðɐ] #50
- Georgian არაფერი[äɾäpʰe̞ɾi] #114
- German nichts/nɪx(t)s/ #75
- Greek τίποτα/ˈti.po.ta/ #73
- Hungarian semmi[ˈʃɛmːi] #65
- Icelandic neinn[ˈneitn̥] no one, nobody, nothing #519
- Italian niente/ˈnjɛn.te/ #92
- Korean 괜히[ˈkwɛ(ː)nʝi] for nothing #717
- Latvian neko/neˈkuo/ #114
- Lithuanian veltui[¹ˈʋʲæˑltʊɪ] in vain, for nothing, wastefully #1,136
- Macedonian ништо[ˈniʃtɔ] #72
- Norwegian ingen/ˈɪŋən/ no; no one; nobody; nothing #75
- Polish nic/ˈɲit͡s/ #50
- Portuguese nada/ˈna.dɐ/ #66
- Romanian taci[tat͡ʃʲ] to be silent, say nothing #511
- Russian нечего[ˈnʲet͡ɕɪvə] there is nothing #1,028
- Serbian ništa/nîʃta/ #82
- Slovak nič/ɲit͡ʃ/ #47
- Slovenian nič/nít͡ʃ/ #64
- Spanish nada/ˈnada/ nothing, zero, zilch, not...anything #58
- Swedish ingenting/ˈɪŋɛnˌtɪŋ/ #271
- Tagalog wala/waˈlaʔ/ nothing; to not exist; there is no #34
- Turkish sırf/ˈsɯɾf/ only, solely, nothing but #1,074
- Ukrainian нічого[nʲiˈt͡ʃɔɦɔ] #80
- Vietnamese toàn[twaːn˨˩] nothing but #205
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 Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), CC BY-SA 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.