How to say “shadow” in 31 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 நிழல் is the 504th most used word.
- Afrikaans skaduwee #1,684
- Albanian hije #1,488
- Arabic ظل shadow, shade #1,406
- Armenian ստվեր shadow, shade #734
- Basque itzal #990
- Bengali ছায়া #2,426
- Bosnian sina shadow; shade #523
- Catalan ombra #2,004
- Chinese 影子 #1,251
- Croatian sina shadow; shade #534
- Esperanto ombro #2,437
- Estonian vari #2,273
- French ombre shade, shadow #1,978
- German schatten shade, shadow #1,965
- Hebrew צל A shadow #2,332
- Indonesian bayangan #1,670
- Italian ombra shade, shadow #2,398
- Korean 그림자 #1,603
- Latvian ēnas #2,184
- Lithuanian šešėlis shadow, shade #2,169
- Macedonian сенка #1,881
- Malay wayang shadow play traditional among the Javanese… #2,101
- Malayalam നിഴൽ shadow; A dark image cast upon a surface by a… #1,901
- Persian سایه #2,267
- Serbian sina shadow; shade #515
- Slovak tieň #1,445
- Slovenian senca #1,209
- Tagalog anino #898
- Tamil நிழல் shadow, shade #504
- Telugu నీడ shade, shadow #1,328
- Urdu سایہ shadow, shade #2,391
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.