How to say “quiet” in 41 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 Bengali, where শান্ত is the 246th most used word.
- Albanian qetësohem to calm down, to quiet down #2,414
- Arabic هادئ calm, restful, quiet, tranquil #1,412
- Basque ixil quiet, reserved in speech #2,294
- Bengali শান্ত quiet, calm #246
- Bosnian tih quiet, silent #645
- Bulgarian тишина silence, quiet #1,518
- Catalan calla to be silent, to be quiet #633
- Croatian tih quiet, silent #627
- Czech ticho quiet, silence #987
- Danish rolig calm, quiet, peaceful #341
- English chuckles A quiet laugh #613
- Esperanto trankviliĝu to calm down, quiet down #460
- Estonian vaikne #1,246
- Finnish hiljaa quietly, quiet, silently #429
- French tranquille calm, quiet, tranquil, still, peaceful, serene #919
- Galician quieto quiet, still, having little motion or activity #2,086
- Georgian სიჩუმე calm, hush, quiet, quietness, quietude,… #1,125
- German beruhigen to calm down, to quiet #1,747
- Greek σκάσε shut up, shut it, be quiet #716
- Hindi चुप silent, quiet #403
- Hungarian csendes silent, quiet #2,399
- Icelandic rólegur quiet, calm #1,447
- Indonesian diam #319
- Italian zitto quiet, silent #884
- Latvian klusu quiet, silent, quietly, silently; adverbial… #925
- Lithuanian patylėk to be quiet; to be able to be quiet #1,190
- Macedonian молчи to be silent, keep quiet #1,500
- Malay diam quiet; silent #310
- Norwegian rolig calm, quiet, peaceful #413
- Persian خاموش #740
- Polish uspokój to calm, to soothe, to quiet #1,123
- Portuguese quieto #1,994
- Serbian tih quiet, silent #655
- Slovenian tih quiet, silent #1,476
- Spanish queda quiet, still #533
- Swedish tysta quiet, silent #1,862
- Tagalog tumahimik to become quiet; to become silent #266
- Tamil அமை to become still, quiet, to subside #1,201
- Turkish sus to be quiet #1,245
- Urdu چپ silent, quiet #492
- Vietnamese im calm; silent; quiet; not talking anymore #646
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.