How to say “river” in 39 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.
- río/ˈrio/ Spanish
- 河流/xɤ³⁵ li̯oʊ̯³⁵/ Chinese
- 강[ka̠ŋ] Korean
- नदी/nə.d̪iː/ Hindi
- ποτάμι/poˈta.mi/ Greek
- נהר/naˈʔaʁ/ Hebrew
“river” in Spanish: río · French: rivière · German: fluss · Italian: fiume · Chinese: 河流 · Korean: 강 · Hindi: नदी · Turkish: nehir
It is commonest in Bosnian, where reci is the 142nd most used word.
River in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans rivier/rəˈfiːr/ #906
- Albanian lumit/lumit/ #1,510
- Arabic عربة/ʕa.ra.ba/ river with a strong current #1,325
- Basque ibai/ibai̯/ #1,177
- Bengali নদী/nod̪i/ #1,041
- Bosnian reci/ˈrɛtsɪ/ #142
- Chinese 河流/xɤ³⁵ li̯oʊ̯³⁵/ #1,940
- Croatian reci/ˈrɛtsɪ/ #160
- Danish floden/ˈfloðˀən/ #1,568
- Dutch rivier/riˈviːr/ a river #1,478
- Esperanto rivero/riˈvero/ #864
- Estonian jõe/jɤe̯/ #1,493
- French rivière/ʁi.vjɛʁ/ a river #2,046
- German fluss/flʊs/ #1,853
- Greek ποτάμι/poˈta.mi/ river, stream #1,573
- Hebrew נהר/naˈʔaʁ/ #2,108
- Hindi नदी/nə.d̪iː/ #1,493
- Icelandic ána/ˈauːna/ #1,389
- Indonesian sungai/ˈsuŋai̯/ #908
- Italian fiume/ˈfju.me/ #1,676
- Korean 강[ka̠ŋ] #1,388
- Latvian upes/ˈupes/ #1,911
- Lithuanian upės[ˈʊpʲeːs] #1,043
- Malay sungai/ˈsuŋaj/ #789
- Malayalam നദി/n̪ɐd̪i/ a river #922
- Norwegian elva/ˈɛlvɑ/ #1,979
- Persian رودخانه[ɹuːd̪.xɒː.né] #1,548
- Romanian râu/ˈrɨw/ #2,020
- Serbian reci/ˈrɛtsɪ/ #175
- Slovak rieke/rɪ̯eke/ #1,354
- Slovenian reki/ˈreːki/ #838
- Spanish río/ˈrio/ #1,229
- Swedish floden/ˈfluːdɛn/ a river #1,605
- Tagalog ilog/ˈʔiloɡ/ #408
- Tamil ஆற்றில்/ɑːrːɪl/ river, brook #1,342
- Telugu నది/nad̪i/ a river or stream #1,132
- Turkish nehir/ne.hiɾ/ #2,435
- Urdu دریا/d̪əɾ.jɑː/ #2,197
- Vietnamese sông[səwŋ͡m˧˧] #1,065
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), 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.