How to say “paper” 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 English, where book is the 562nd most used word.
- Afrikaans papier #855
- Albanian letër #796
- Basque paper sheet of paper #686
- Bengali কাগজ #826
- Bosnian papir #1,775
- Bulgarian хартия #1,685
- Croatian papir #1,800
- Czech papír #2,193
- Danish papirer #1,715
- Dutch papieren #1,496
- English book A collection of sheets of paper bound… #562
- Estonian paber #2,169
- French papier #1,384
- Galician papel #592
- German papiere #2,280
- Greek χαρτιά #1,057
- Hebrew נייר #1,140
- Hindi कार्बन carbon, carbon paper #2,150
- Icelandic pappír #1,858
- Indonesian kertas #1,189
- Italian carta #1,001
- Korean 먹지 carbon paper #890
- Latvian papīra #1,552
- Lithuanian popierius #1,293
- Macedonian хартија #1,292
- Malay tisu A sheet of absorbent paper, especially one… #2,175
- Malayalam പേപ്പർ #1,261
- Norwegian papirene #1,960
- Persian کاغذ #1,232
- Portuguese papel #884
- Romanian hârtie #1,598
- Serbian papir #1,709
- Slovenian list piece of paper #730
- Spanish papel #916
- Swedish bok collection of sheets of paper #938
- Tagalog papel #633
- Tamil தாள் paper, sheet #1,292
- Urdu دستاویز document, paper #639
- Vietnamese giấy #770
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.