How to say “rock” in 36 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.
- rock/ˈrok/ Spanish
- روك/ruːk/ Arabic
- 岩石/jɛn³⁵ ʂɻ̩³⁵/ Chinese
- 돌[to̞(ː)ɭ] Korean
- πέτρα/ˈpetra/ Greek
“rock” in Spanish: rock · French: rock · Portuguese: rock · Chinese: 岩石 · Korean: 돌 · Arabic: روك · Greek: πέτρα
It is commonest in Vietnamese, where đá is the 568th most used word.
Rock in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans rotse/ˈrɔtsə/ #1,478
- Albanian gurë/ɡuɾə/ stone, rock #1,471
- Arabic روك/ruːk/ #1,730
- Armenian քարի/kʰaˈɹi/ stone, rock #762
- Basque haitz/hai̯t͡s̻/ stone, rock #2,051
- Bengali পাথর/pat̪ʰoɾ/ stone, rock #600
- Bulgarian камък[ˈkamɐk] stone, rock #1,420
- Catalan roca[ˈrɔ.kə] #2,140
- Chinese 岩石/jɛn³⁵ ʂɻ̩³⁵/ #1,329
- Estonian kivi/ˈkivi/ stone, rock #1,030
- French rock/ʁɔk/ #2,094
- Galician rochas/ˈrot͡ʃas/ #2,231
- German stein/ʃtaɪn/ stone, rock #1,711
- Greek πέτρα/ˈpetra/ rock, stone #1,786
- Hindi रॉक/ɾɔk/ rock music #1,019
- Icelandic sker[ˈscɛːr] reef, rock, skerry #1,386
- Indonesian batu/ˈba.tu/ stone, rock #629
- Korean 돌[to̞(ː)ɭ] rock, stone; pebble #1,242
- Latvian akmens[ˈakmɛns] stone, rock #1,088
- Macedonian камен[ˈkamɛn] stone, rock #924
- Malayalam കല്ല്/kɐllɨ/ stone, rock #435
- Norwegian stein/stæɪn/ stone, rock #1,318
- Persian سنگ[sæɲɡʲ̥] stone, rock #581
- Portuguese rock/ˈʁɔ.ki/ #2,257
- Romanian rock/ˈrokk/ #1,749
- Russian камень[ˈkamʲɪnʲ] stone, rock #2,093
- Slovak skaly/ˈskali/ #1,913
- Slovenian skala/skàːla/ #1,631
- Spanish rock/ˈrok/ #2,146
- Swedish jorden/ˈjuːrdɛn/ earth, soil; a rock- or sand-based… #736
- Tamil கல்/kɐl/ stone; rock #410
- Telugu కొండ/koɳɖa/ hill, hillock, rock #888
- Turkish taş/ˈtaʃ/ stone, rock #1,166
- Ukrainian рок/rok/ rock music #2,436
- Urdu پتھر/pət̪.t̪ʰəɾ/ stone, rock #550
- Vietnamese đá[ʔɗaː˧˦] rock, stone #568
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.