How to say “people” in 48 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 you is the 1st most used word.
- Afrikaans volk #497
- Albanian populli #1,396
- Arabic أناس persons, people #895
- Armenian ոմանք some people #538
- Basque jende #198
- Bengali হিব্রু Hebrew people #2,159
- Bosnian ljudi people, men #105
- Bulgarian хора #126
- Catalan gent people, folk #124
- Chinese 人民 #456
- Croatian ljudi people, men #106
- Danish man you, one, they, people #78
- Dutch men one, you, they, everyone; humanity, people,… #773
- English you The people spoken, or written to, as an object #1
- Esperanto popolo #576
- Estonian üksi Without other people #392
- Finnish väkeä people, crowd #2,017
- French on one, people, you, someone #21
- Galician xente #74
- Georgian ხალხი people, folk, folks, public, nation #110
- German leute people, folk, peeps, guys #175
- Greek λαό people, the mass of a community as… #2,275
- Hebrew רבים many people #618
- Hindi लोगों #126
- Hungarian maguk you, you all, you people, you folks #539
- Icelandic fólk #589
- Indonesian sipil civil, having to do with people and… #1,904
- Italian persone person, pl people, persons #220
- Korean 너희들 you all, you people, you folks, you guys #478
- Latvian viņi they; third person pronoun, referring to… #40
- Lithuanian būrys multitude of people, animals, or things #1,093
- Macedonian народ people, nation #842
- Malay sama Joining other people; along #130
- Malayalam ചിലർ some people #962
- Norwegian folk a people, nation #151
- Persian مردم #132
- Portuguese povo #889
- Russian люди people, humans #173
- Serbian ljudi people, men #109
- Slovak národ people, nation #1,469
- Spanish gente #145
- Swedish man people in general; one, you, they, people, etc #55
- Tamil மக்கள் #72
- Telugu ప్రజలు #81
- Turkish halk #1,594
- Ukrainian люди people, humans #126
- Urdu لوگوں #83
- Vietnamese dân the people #466
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.