How to say “people” in 48 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.
- gente/ˈxente/ Spanish
- люди[ˈlʲʉdʲi] Russian
- 人民/ɻən³⁵ min³⁵/ Chinese
- लोगों/loː.ɡõː/ Hindi
- λαό/laˈo/ Greek
- ხალხი[χälχi] Georgian
“people” in Spanish: gente · German: leute · Portuguese: povo · Chinese: 人民 · Russian: люди · Hindi: लोगों · Turkish: halk · Greek: λαό
It is commonest in Swedish, where man is the 55th most used word.
People in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans volk/fɔlk/ #497
- Albanian populli/pɔpuɫi/ #1,396
- Arabic أناس/ʔu.naːs/ persons, people #895
- Armenian ոմանք/voˈmɑnkʰ/ some people #538
- Basque jende/ɟende/ #198
- Bengali হিব্রু/hibɾu/ Hebrew people #2,159
- Bosnian ljudi/ʎûːdi/ people, men #105
- Bulgarian хора[ˈxɔrɐ] #126
- Catalan gent[ˈʒen] people, folk #124
- Chinese 人民/ɻən³⁵ min³⁵/ #456
- Croatian ljudi/ʎûːdi/ people, men #106
- Danish man/maːˀn/ you, one, they, people #78
- Dutch men/mɛn/ one, you, they, everyone; humanity, people,… #773
- English you/ju/ The people spoken, or written to, as an object #1
- Esperanto popolo/poˈpolo/ #576
- Estonian üksi/ˈyksi/ Without other people #392
- Finnish väkeä/ˈvækeæ/ people, crowd #2,017
- French on/ɔ̃/ one, people, you, someone #21
- Galician xente/ˈʃente/ #74
- Georgian ხალხი[χälχi] people, folk, folks, public, nation #110
- German leute/ˈlɔɪ.tə/ people, folk, peeps, guys #175
- Greek λαό/laˈo/ people, the mass of a community as… #2,275
- Hebrew רבים/ʁaˈbim/ many people #618
- Hindi लोगों/loː.ɡõː/ #126
- Hungarian maguk[ˈmɒɡuk] you, you all, you people, you folks #539
- Icelandic fólk[ˈfoul̥k] #589
- Indonesian sipil/sipɪl/ civil, having to do with people and… #1,904
- Italian persone/perˈso.ne/ person, pl people, persons #220
- Korean 너희들[nʌ̹ʝidɯɭ] you all, you people, you folks, you guys #478
- Latvian viņi/ˈʋiɲi/ they; third person pronoun, referring to… #40
- Lithuanian būrys[buː²ˈrʲiːs] multitude of people, animals, or things #1,093
- Macedonian народ[ˈnaɾɔt] people, nation #842
- Malay sama/ˈsamə/ Joining other people; along #130
- Malayalam ചിലർ/t͡ʃilɐr/ some people #962
- Norwegian folk/ˈfɔlk/ a people, nation #151
- Persian مردم[mæɹ.d̪óm] #132
- Portuguese povo/ˈpo.vu/ #889
- Russian люди[ˈlʲʉdʲi] people, humans #173
- Serbian ljudi/ʎûːdi/ people, men #109
- Slovak národ/naːrɔt/ people, nation #1,469
- Spanish gente/ˈxente/ #145
- Swedish man/man/ people in general; one, you, they, people, etc #55
- Tamil மக்கள்/mɐkːɐɭ/ #72
- Telugu ప్రజలు/ˈpraɟalu/ #81
- Turkish halk/ˈhaɫk/ #1,594
- Ukrainian люди[ˈlʲude] people, humans #126
- Urdu لوگوں/loː.ɡõː/ #83
- Vietnamese dân[zən˧˧] the people #466
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 Bengali (google (bn_BD), CC BY-SA 4.0), Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), CC BY-SA 4.0), Estonian (news (et_EE), 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.