How to say “rock” in 36 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 Tamil, where கல் is the 410th most used word.
- Afrikaans rotse #1,478
- Albanian gurë stone, rock #1,471
- Arabic روك #1,730
- Armenian քարի stone, rock #762
- Basque haitz stone, rock #2,051
- Bengali পাথর stone, rock #600
- Bulgarian камък stone, rock #1,420
- Catalan roca #2,140
- Chinese 岩石 #1,329
- Estonian kivi stone, rock #1,030
- French rock #2,094
- Galician rochas #2,231
- German stein stone, rock #1,711
- Greek πέτρα rock, stone #1,786
- Hindi रॉक rock music #1,019
- Icelandic sker reef, rock, skerry #1,386
- Indonesian batu stone, rock #629
- Korean 돌 rock, stone; pebble #1,242
- Latvian akmens stone, rock #1,088
- Macedonian камен stone, rock #924
- Malayalam കല്ല് stone, rock #435
- Norwegian stein stone, rock #1,318
- Persian سنگ stone, rock #581
- Portuguese rock #2,257
- Romanian rock #1,749
- Russian камень stone, rock #2,093
- Slovak skaly #1,913
- Slovenian skala #1,631
- Spanish rock #2,146
- Swedish jorden earth, soil; a rock- or sand-based… #736
- Tamil கல் stone; rock #410
- Telugu కొండ hill, hillock, rock #888
- Turkish taş stone, rock #1,166
- Ukrainian рок rock music #2,436
- Urdu پتھر stone, rock #550
- Vietnamese đá rock, stone #568
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.