How to say “school” in 47 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.
- escuela/esˈkwela/ Spanish
- школа[ˈʂkoɫə] Russian
- مدرسة/mad.ra.sa/ Arabic
- 학교[ha̠k̚k͈jo] Korean
- स्कूल/skuːl/ Hindi
- σχολείο/sxoˈli.o/ Greek
“school” in Spanish: escuela · French: école · German: schule · Italian: scuola · Portuguese: escola · Korean: 학교 · Russian: школа · Arabic: مدرسة
It is commonest in Telugu, where పాఠశాల is the 176th most used word.
School in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans skool/skʊə̯l/ #322
- Albanian shkollë/ˈʃkoɫ(ə)/ #503
- Arabic مدرسة/mad.ra.sa/ school, academy #610
- Basque eskola/es̺kola/ #462
- Bengali স্কুল/skul/ school, academy #496
- Bosnian škola/ʃkôːla/ #1,200
- Bulgarian училище[oˈt͡ʃiliʃtɛ] #387
- Catalan escola[əsˈkɔ.lə] #573
- Chinese 高中/kɑʊ̯⁵⁵ ʈ͡ʂʊŋ⁵⁵/ high school; senior high school #553
- Croatian škola/ʃkôːla/ #1,247
- Czech školy[ˈʃkolɪ] #650
- Danish skole/skoːlə/ #691
- Dutch school/sxoːl/ a school, educational institution that… #378
- Esperanto lernejo/lerˈnejo/ #374
- Estonian kool/ˈkoːlʲ/ #1,289
- Finnish koulussa/ˈkoulussa/ #1,366
- French école/e.kɔl/ #432
- Galician escola/esˈkɔla/ #445
- German schule/ˈʃuːlə/ school; department/institute at a college or… #551
- Greek σχολείο/sxoˈli.o/ #459
- Hindi स्कूल/skuːl/ #522
- Hungarian iskola[ˈiʃkolɒ] #1,472
- Indonesian perguruan/pərɡuˈruan/ school: an institution dedicated to teaching… #2,204
- Italian scuola/ˈskwɔ.la/ #425
- Korean 학교[ha̠k̚k͈jo] #399
- Latvian skolā/ˈskuolaː/ #711
- Lithuanian mokyklos[moː²ˈkʲiːkloːs] #534
- Macedonian училиште[uˈt͡ʃiliʃtɛ] #508
- Malay sekolah/səˈkolah/ #307
- Malayalam സ്കൂൾ/skuːɭ/ #657
- Norwegian skolen/ˈskuːln̩/ #517
- Persian مدرسه[mæd̪.ɹe.sé] #294
- Polish szkoły/ˈʂkɔ.wɘ/ #622
- Portuguese escola/isˈkɔ.lɐ/ #413
- Romanian liceu/litˈʃeʊ/ secondary school #1,350
- Russian школа[ˈʂkoɫə] #2,020
- Serbian škola/ʃkôːla/ #1,174
- Slovak škola/ʃkɔla/ #759
- Slovenian šola/ʃóːla/ #604
- Spanish escuela/esˈkwela/ #462
- Swedish skolan/ˈskuːlan/ #506
- Tagalog paaralan/ˌpaʔaɾaˈlan/ #1,758
- Telugu పాఠశాల/paːʈʰaɕaːla/ #176
- Turkish okul/oˈkuɫ/ #728
- Ukrainian школа[ˈʃkɔɫɐ] #1,554
- Urdu اسکول/ɪs.kuːl/ #500
- Vietnamese trường[t͡ɕɨəŋ˨˩] #341
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.