How to say “river” in 39 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 Bosnian, where reci is the 142nd most used word.
- Afrikaans rivier #906
- Albanian lumit #1,510
- Arabic عربة river with a strong current #1,325
- Basque ibai #1,177
- Bengali নদী #1,041
- Bosnian reci #142
- Chinese 河流 #1,940
- Croatian reci #160
- Danish floden #1,568
- Dutch rivier a river #1,478
- Esperanto rivero #864
- Estonian jõe #1,493
- French rivière a river #2,046
- German fluss #1,853
- Greek ποτάμι river, stream #1,573
- Hebrew נהר #2,108
- Hindi नदी #1,493
- Icelandic ána #1,389
- Indonesian sungai #908
- Italian fiume #1,676
- Korean 강 #1,388
- Latvian upes #1,911
- Lithuanian upės #1,043
- Malay sungai #789
- Malayalam നദി a river #922
- Norwegian elva #1,979
- Persian رودخانه #1,548
- Romanian râu #2,020
- Serbian reci #175
- Slovak rieke #1,354
- Slovenian reki #838
- Spanish río #1,229
- Swedish floden a river #1,605
- Tagalog ilog #408
- Tamil ஆற்றில் river, brook #1,342
- Telugu నది a river or stream #1,132
- Turkish nehir #2,435
- Urdu دریا #2,197
- Vietnamese sông #1,065
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.