How to say “pretty” in 37 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.
“pretty” in French: jolie · Portuguese: bonita · Chinese: 漂亮 · Turkish: epey
It is commonest in Chinese, where 漂亮 is the 110th most used word.
Pretty in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans mooi/ˈmoːi̯ ~ muə̯j/ beautiful, pretty #116
- Arabic وسيم/wasiːm/ handsome, pretty, goodly, elegant #1,164
- Armenian սիրունիկ/siɾuˈnik/ cute, nice, pretty #1,634
- Basque ederra/eˈðeˌra/ beautiful, pretty, handsome #159
- Bengali সুন্দর/ʃund̪ɔɾ/ beautiful, pretty #147
- Bosnian prilično/prǐːlit͡ʃno/ rather, pretty, quite, fairly #526
- Bulgarian хубав[ˈxubɐf] pretty, lovely, fine-looking, beautiful,… #899
- Catalan bonic[buˈnik] #716
- Chinese 漂亮/pʰi̯ɑʊ̯⁵¹ li̯ɑŋ¹/ pretty; beautiful; handsome #110
- Croatian prilično/prǐːlit͡ʃno/ rather, pretty, quite, fairly #453
- Czech hezký[ˈɦɛskiː] nice, pretty #936
- Danish pænt/ˈpɛːˀnd/ fairly, pretty; to some extent #866
- Dutch mooi/moːi̯/ beautiful, pretty, handsome #236
- Esperanto bela/ˈbela/ beautiful, pretty #211
- Estonian ilus/ˈilus/ beautiful, pretty #373
- Finnish kaunis/ˈkɑu̯nis/ beautiful, pretty, fair #439
- French jolie/ʒoˈli/ pretty; cute #831
- Galician bonito/boˈnito/ pretty, lovely #657
- Georgian საკმაოდ[säkʼmäo̞tʰ] enough, pretty, quite, rather #524
- German recht/ʁɛçt/ very, quite, rather, pretty, fairly #233
- Greek όμορφη/ˈo.moɾ.fi/ beautiful, pretty, handsome #547
- Hindi सुंदर/sʊn.d̪əɾ/ beautiful, pretty; good-looking, handsome #297
- Hungarian jó[ˈjoː] quite, pretty #32
- Icelandic fallegt/ˈfatlɛxt/ beautiful, pretty, pulchritudinous #358
- Indonesian cantik/ˈt͡ʃantik/ pretty, beautiful #349
- Korean 예쁜[je̞p͈ɯn] to be pretty, lovely, beautiful, comely #491
- Macedonian убава[ˈubava] beautiful, pretty #377
- Malay cantik/ˈt͡ʃantek/ beautiful, good-looking, pretty #283
- Norwegian ganske/²ɡɑnskə/ quite, pretty #364
- Polish całkiem/ˈt͡saw.kjɛm/ quite, pretty #523
- Portuguese bonita/buˈni.tɐ/ pretty, lovely #743
- Serbian prilično/prǐːlit͡ʃno/ rather, pretty, quite, fairly #498
- Spanish bastante/basˈtante/ quite, rather, pretty, fairly #384
- Swedish ganska/ˈɡanska/ pretty, quite, rather #490
- Turkish epey/ˈe.pej/ pretty, quite, fairly #896
- Ukrainian гарний[ˈɦarnei̯] beautiful, pretty, handsome #677
- Vietnamese xinh[sïŋ˧˧] nice; pretty #939
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.