How to say “office” in 46 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 French, where chez is the 164th most used word.
- Afrikaans kantoor #689
- Albanian zyra office, bureau #888
- Arabic وزارة the office, responsibility, or burden of a… #1,243
- Armenian գրասենյակ #746
- Basque bulego #825
- Bengali অফিস #735
- Bosnian ured #1,083
- Bulgarian офис #1,450
- Catalan oficina #685
- Croatian ured #725
- Czech kanceláře #1,175
- Danish kontor #716
- Dutch kantoor #572
- English official Of or about an office or public trust #2,037
- Esperanto oficejo office, place of work #692
- Estonian kontor #1,894
- French chez to, at, in or into the home, office, etc. of #164
- Galician oficina #707
- German büro #649
- Hebrew אצל At or to the home or office of, or the like #589
- Hindi कार्यालय office, workplace #610
- Hungarian irodában #2,214
- Icelandic skrifstofa #1,759
- Indonesian pejabat official, an office holder invested with… #2,222
- Italian ufficio #520
- Korean 사무실 #1,074
- Latvian birojs #1,388
- Lithuanian biuras #1,651
- Macedonian канцеларија #655
- Malay pejabat #493
- Norwegian kontoret an office #753
- Persian اداره #512
- Polish biura office, agency #1,068
- Portuguese escritório #721
- Russian офис #1,266
- Serbian ured #1,666
- Slovak úrad office, bureau #1,148
- Slovenian pisarna #812
- Spanish oficina #534
- Swedish kontor office; building or room #902
- Tagalog opisina #490
- Tamil அலுவலகம் office, place of work #624
- Turkish ofisi #2,353
- Ukrainian офіс #2,134
- Urdu دفتر office, workplace #862
- Vietnamese chức office; rank #664
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.