How to say “red” in 49 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.
- rojo/ˈroxo/ Spanish
- красный[ˈkrasnɨj] Russian
- أحمر/ʔaħ.mar/ Arabic
- लाल/lɑːl/ Hindi
- κόκκινο/ˈko.ci.no/ Greek
- אדום/ʔaːˈdoːm/ Hebrew
“red” in Spanish: rojo · French: rouge · German: rot · Italian: rosso · Portuguese: vermelho · Russian: красный · Arabic: أحمر · Hindi: लाल
It is commonest in Georgian, where წითელი is the 384th most used word.
Red in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans rooi/roːi̯ ~ ruə̯i̯/ #431
- Albanian kuq[kuc] #906
- Arabic أحمر/ʔaħ.mar/ #1,112
- Basque gorri/ɡori/ #704
- Bengali লাল/lal/ #507
- Bosnian crvena/ˈtsrvɛnɐ/ #1,763
- Bulgarian червено[t͡ʃɛrˈvɛno] in red #1,612
- Catalan vermell[bərˈmɛʎ] red, vermilion #1,408
- Croatian crvena/ˈtsrvɛnɐ/ #1,952
- Czech červený[ˈt͡ʃɛrvɛniː] #2,399
- Danish rød[ˈʁœˀð] #1,457
- Dutch rode/ˈroː.də/ #1,049
- English chicken/ˈt͡ʃɪkɪn/ A domesticated subspecies of red junglefowl #1,204
- Esperanto ruĝa/ˈrud͡ʒa/ #766
- Estonian punane/ˈpunɑne/ #920
- Finnish punainen/ˈpunɑi̯nen/ #1,828
- French rouge/ʁuʒ/ #801
- Galician vermello/beɾˈmeɟo/ #886
- Georgian წითელი[t͡sʼitʰe̞li] #384
- German rot/roːt/ #1,831
- Greek κόκκινο/ˈko.ci.no/ #1,129
- Hebrew אדום/ʔaːˈdoːm/ #885
- Hindi लाल/lɑːl/ #828
- Hungarian vörös[ˈvørøʃ] #1,077
- Icelandic rautt[ˈrœiht] #1,436
- Indonesian merah/ˈmɛrah/ #614
- Italian rosso/ˈros.so/ #1,309
- Korean 놀[no̞(ː)ɭ] glow, red sky #1,402
- Latvian sarkanā/ˈsarkanaː/ #1,759
- Lithuanian raudona/rɐʊˈdoːnɐ/ #1,098
- Macedonian црвено[ˈt͡sr̩vɛnɔ] in red #1,396
- Malay merah/ˈmerah/ #566
- Malayalam റെഡ്/reɖɨ̆/ #552
- Norwegian røde/ˈrøːə/ #1,277
- Persian سرخ[soɹx] scarlet, red color #1,113
- Polish czerwony/t͡ʂɛrˈvɔ.nɘ/ #2,472
- Portuguese vermelho/veʁˈme.ʎu/ #1,345
- Russian красный[ˈkrasnɨj] #2,188
- Serbian crvena/ˈtsrvɛnɐ/ #1,949
- Slovak červená/t͡ʃervenaː/ #1,151
- Slovenian rdeč/ərdɛ́t͡ʃ/ #1,344
- Spanish rojo/ˈroxo/ #1,280
- Swedish röda/ˈrøːda/ #1,294
- Tamil சிவப்பு/tʃɪʋɐpːɯ/ red, ruddiness #539
- Telugu ఎరుపు/eɾupu/ red, redness #454
- Turkish alın/ɑ.ɫɯn/ blood red #663
- Ukrainian червоний[t͡ʃerˈwɔnei̯] #2,025
- Urdu سرخ/sʊɾx/ #544
- Vietnamese đỏ[ʔɗɔ˧˩] #820
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.