How to say “room” in 52 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 Arabic, where غرفة is the 198th most used word.
- Afrikaans kamer A room, a chamber #208
- Albanian dhomën room, chamber #456
- Arabic غرفة room, compartment, cell, chamber #198
- Armenian սենյակ #703
- Basque gela #279
- Bengali কামরা room, apartment #2,298
- Bosnian sobu #515
- Bulgarian стая room, chamber #448
- Catalan sala a large room #691
- Chinese 屋子 #854
- Croatian sobu #539
- Czech pokoj #690
- Danish værelse room; separate part of a building #593
- Dutch ruimte space, room #801
- English kitchen A room or area for preparing food #1,112
- Esperanto ĉambro #616
- Estonian tuba room, chamber #767
- Finnish tilaa space, volume, room #1,162
- French chambre a room #390
- Galician parede wall, especially of a room or a building #1,255
- German zimmer #507
- Greek δωμάτιο #397
- Hebrew חדר #486
- Hindi कमरे room, chamber #608
- Hungarian szobában #1,360
- Icelandic herbergi room, apartment #452
- Indonesian ok operating theatre, operating room #287
- Italian stanza #477
- Korean 방 #471
- Latvian istabā #755
- Lithuanian kambarys #603
- Macedonian соба #294
- Malay bilik A room #264
- Malayalam മുറി #289
- Norwegian plass room, space #529
- Persian اتاق #209
- Polish miejsce place, room, space #215
- Portuguese sala #514
- Romanian camera #369
- Russian комната #1,467
- Serbian sobu #518
- Slovak izba chamber, room #746
- Slovenian prostor space, room #344
- Spanish habitación #494
- Swedish rum a room #440
- Tagalog kuwarto #361
- Tamil இடம் place, room, site, spot, situation; part or… #315
- Telugu గది room, apartment, closet #248
- Turkish oda room, chamber #692
- Ukrainian кімната #1,336
- Urdu کمرہ room, chamber #1,385
- Vietnamese phòng a room #209
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.