How to say “prison” in 42 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.
- cárcel/ˈkaɾθel/ Spanish
- φυλακή/ˌfilaˈci/ Greek
- כלא/ˈkele/ Hebrew
- բանտ/bɑnt/ Armenian
- কারাগার/kaɾaɡaɾ/ Bengali
- തടവറ/t̪ɐɖɐʋɐrɐ/ Malayalam
“prison” in Spanish: cárcel · French: prison · German: gefängnis · Portuguese: prisão · Turkish: hapishane · Greek: φυλακή
It is commonest in Macedonian, where затвор is the 355th most used word.
Prison in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans tronk/trɔŋk/ #483
- Albanian burg[buɹɡ] jail, prison #455
- Armenian բանտ/bɑnt/ prison, jail #1,682
- Basque espetxe/es̺ˈpetˌʃe/ jail, gaol; prison #1,261
- Bengali কারাগার/kaɾaɡaɾ/ prison, jail #1,751
- Bosnian zatvor/zǎːtʋor/ prison, jail #735
- Bulgarian затвор[zɐtˈvɔr] prison, jail #1,415
- Catalan presó[pɾəˈzo] #582
- Chinese 牢房/lɑʊ̯³⁵ fɑŋ³⁵/ prison cell; jail cell #1,739
- Croatian zatvor/zǎːtʋor/ prison, jail #756
- Czech vězení[ˈvjɛzɛɲiː] prison, jail #600
- Danish fængsel/fɛŋˀsəl/ #652
- Dutch gevangenis/ɣəˈvɑ.ŋəˌnɪs/ a jail, a prison; especially an institution… #653
- English cops/kɑps/ A police officer or prison guard #1,002
- Estonian vangla/ˈvɑnɡ̊lɑ/ prison, jail #1,384
- Finnish vankilaan/ˈvaŋkɪlaːn/ #1,089
- French prison/pʁi.zɔ̃/ #508
- Galician prisión/pɾiˈsjoŋ/ #1,152
- German gefängnis/ɡəˈfɛŋnɪs/ prison, jail #776
- Greek φυλακή/ˌfilaˈci/ prison, jail, gaol #481
- Hebrew כלא/ˈkele/ prison, jail #1,508
- Hungarian börtönbe[ˈbørtømbɛ] #1,291
- Icelandic fangelsi[ˈfauɲcɛlsɪ] #464
- Indonesian penjara/pənˈd͡ʒara/ prison, jail #492
- Italian prigione/priˈd͡ʒo.ne/ jail, prison #688
- Korean 감옥[ka̠mo̞k̚] jail, prison #929
- Latvian cietumā/ˈt͡sietumaː/ #633
- Macedonian затвор[ˈzatvɔr] prison, jail #355
- Malayalam തടവറ/t̪ɐɖɐʋɐrɐ/ prison, jail #1,841
- Norwegian fengsel/ˈfɛŋsəl/ a prison #595
- Persian زندان[zen̪.d̪ɒ́ːn] jail, prison #385
- Portuguese prisão/pɾiˈzɐ̃w̃/ #581
- Romanian închisoare/ɨn.kiˈso̯a.re/ prison, jail #650
- Serbian zatvor/zǎːtʋor/ prison, jail #768
- Slovenian zapor/zapɔ́r/ #406
- Spanish cárcel/ˈkaɾθel/ #878
- Swedish fängelse/ˈfɛŋɛlsɛ/ a prison, a jail #816
- Tagalog bilangguan/bilaŋˈɡuʔan/ prison; jail #696
- Tamil சிறை/tʃɪrɐɪ̯/ jail, prison, imprisonment #1,162
- Turkish hapishane/hapishaˈne/ #2,043
- Urdu قید/qɛːd̪/ jail, prison #917
- Vietnamese tù[tu˨˩] #564
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), Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), 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.