How to say “say” in 51 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.
- decir/deˈθiɾ/ Spanish
- сказать[skaˈzatʲ] Russian
- قال/qaː.la/ Arabic
- कहा/kə.ɦɑː/ Hindi
- πω/ˈpo/ Greek
- אומר/omeʁ/ Hebrew
“say” in Spanish: decir · French: dit · German: sagen · Russian: сказать · Arabic: قال · Hindi: कहा · Greek: πω
It is commonest in Basque, where esan is the 14th most used word.
Say in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans sê/sɛː/ to say #60
- Albanian them[θɛm] to say #92
- Arabic قال/qaː.la/ to say #125
- Armenian ասել/ɑˈsel/ to say #105
- Basque esan/es̺an/ to say, tell #14
- Bengali বলতে/bolt̪e/ to speak, say, state, tell #72
- Bosnian rekao/ˈrɛkɐo/ to say #73
- Bulgarian кажа[ˈkaʒɐ] to say, to tell #111
- Catalan dir[ˈdi] to say, to pronounce #56
- Chinese 打招呼/tä²¹⁴⁻²¹ ʈ͡ʂɑʊ̯⁵⁵ xu⁵⁵/ to greet; to say hello #1,649
- Croatian rekao/ˈrɛkɐo/ to say #68
- Czech říct[ˈr̝iːt͡st] to say #109
- Danish sagde/saːɣə/ to say #84
- Dutch zei/zɛi̯/ to say, tell #104
- English repeat/ɹɪˈpiːt/ To do or say again #1,974
- Esperanto diris/ˈdiris/ to say, tell #68
- Estonian öelda/ˈøe̯ld̥ɑ/ to say #144
- Finnish sanoi/ˈsɑnoi̯/ to say, tell #157
- French dit/di/ to say, to tell #70
- Galician dicir/diˈθiɾ/ to say, speak #94
- Georgian თქმა[tʰkʰmä] to say #128
- German sagen/zaːɡən/ to say #96
- Greek πω/ˈpo/ to say, tell #113
- Hebrew אומר/omeʁ/ to say, tell #83
- Hindi कहा/kə.ɦɑː/ to say #64
- Hungarian szóval[ˈsoːvɒl] that is, that is to say, in other words #71
- Icelandic segja[ˈseija] to say, to tell #57
- Indonesian bilang/ˈbilaŋ/ to say #87
- Korean 즉[t͡ɕɯk̚] that is to say, in other words, i.e #726
- Latvian teica/ˈteit͡sa/ to say, to tell #151
- Lithuanian pasakyti[pɐsɐ¹ˈkʲiːtʲɪ] to say, to tell #118
- Macedonian рече[ˈrɛt͡ʃɛ] to say, utter, tell #120
- Malay katakan[ka.tə.kan] To say #202
- Malayalam പറഞ്ഞു/pɐrɐɲɲu/ to say, to tell #40
- Norwegian sa/ˈsɑː/ to say #77
- Persian گفتم/ɡoftæm/ to say #96
- Polish mówi/ˈmu.vi/ to say, to tell #195
- Romanian spus/spus/ to say #60
- Russian сказать[skaˈzatʲ] to say, to tell #121
- Serbian rekao/ˈrɛkɐo/ to say #77
- Slovak vravieť/ˈvravi̯ɛc/ to tell, to say #1,823
- Slovenian reči/rɛ̀ːt͡ʃi/ to say #174
- Spanish decir/deˈθiɾ/ to say, to tell #111
- Swedish sa/ˈsɑː/ to say #74
- Tagalog magsabi/maɡˈsabi/ to say; to tell #1,017
- Tamil அதாவது/ɐd̪ɑːʋɐd̪ɯ/ that is, that is to say, namely, basically #189
- Telugu చెప్పారు/ˈceppaːru/ to say, tell #74
- Turkish demek/deˈmec/ so, that is to say #90
- Ukrainian сказати[skɐˈzate] to say, to tell #158
- Urdu کہنا/kəɦ.nɑː/ to say #180
- Vietnamese nói[nɔj˧˦] to speak, to talk, to say, to tell #30
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.