How to say “shut” in 34 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.
“shut” in French: ferme · German: schließen
It is commonest in Tamil, where மூடு is the 275th most used word.
Shut in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans dig/dəχ/ closed, shut, tight #1,662
- Albanian mbyllur/mbyɫuɾ/ to close, shut, seal #489
- Arabic أغلق/ʔaɣlaqa/ to close, to shut #806
- Armenian փակ/pʰɑk/ closed, shut; locked #1,223
- Bengali বন্ধ/bɔnd̪ʱo/ closed, shut #118
- Bosnian šuti/ˈʃutɪ/ to be silent, shut up #1,920
- Chinese 閉嘴/pi⁵¹ t͡su̯eɪ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/ to stop talking; to shut up #1,477
- Croatian šuti/ˈʃutɪ/ to be silent, shut up #1,228
- Czech zavři[ˈzavr̝ɪ] to close, to shut #1,524
- Dutch zwijgen/ˈzʋɛi̯.ɣə(n)/ to be silent, to shut one's mouth #2,124
- Esperanto fermu/ˈfermu/ to close, to shut #728
- Finnish kiinni/ˈkiːnːiˣ/ closed, shut #189
- French ferme/fɛʁm/ to shut #594
- Galician cala/ˈkala/ to shut up; to be silent #656
- Georgian მოკეტე[mo̞kʼe̞tʼe̞] shut up! #1,027
- German schließen[ˈʃliːsn̩] to shut; to close; to shut down #1,421
- Greek σκάσε/ˈskase/ shut up, shut it, be quiet #716
- Hindi बंद/bənd̪/ closed, shut #116
- Italian chiuso/ˈkju.zo/ to close, to shut #939
- Latvian ciet[tsiɛ̂t] closed, shut, sometimes also metaphorically #828
- Lithuanian uždaryk[ʊʒdɐ¹ˈrʲiːk] to close, to shut #1,051
- Malay mematikan/məmaˈtikan/ to turn off, to shut down, to disable #1,527
- Persian بستن[bæs.t̪ʰǽn] to close, to shut #1,963
- Polish zamknij/ˈza.mkɲij/ to close, to lock, to shut #464
- Portuguese cala/ˈka.lɐ/ to shut up #2,435
- Serbian ćuti/ˈtɕutɪ/ to be silent, to shut up #1,454
- Slovak vypnúť/vipnuːc/ to turn off, to shut down, to disable #1,094
- Slovenian zapreti/zaprèːti/ to close, to shut #870
- Spanish cállate/ˈkaʝate/ shut up! #689
- Swedish stäng/ˈstɛŋ/ to close, to shut #1,044
- Tagalog manahimik/manaˈhimik/ to remain silent; to shut up #646
- Tamil மூடு/muːɖɯ/ to shut, close #275
- Turkish kes/ces/ shut up! #333
- Vietnamese đóng[ʔɗawŋ͡m˧˦] to shut tight #583
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), 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.