How to say “sister” in 51 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 Vietnamese, where chị is the 197th most used word.
- Afrikaans suster #269
- Albanian motra #606
- Arabic أخت #1,476
- Basque arreba #473
- Bengali বোন #434
- Bosnian sestra #575
- Bulgarian сестра #348
- Catalan germana #462
- Chinese 姐姐 elder sister; big sister #235
- Croatian sestra #590
- Czech sestra #753
- Danish søster #463
- Dutch zus #592
- English aunt The sister or sister-in-law of one’s parent #1,110
- Esperanto fratino #285
- Estonian õde #482
- Finnish siskoni #1,835
- French sœur #761
- Galician irmá #415
- Georgian დეიდა aunt, maternal aunt, a sister of one's mother… #532
- German schwester #427
- Greek αδελφή #779
- Hebrew אחות #883
- Hindi बहन #425
- Hungarian tesó sibling, brother or sister #1,382
- Icelandic systir #487
- Indonesian yu older sister #2,337
- Italian sorella #515
- Korean 언니 older sister of a female #367
- Latvian māsa #877
- Lithuanian sesuo #576
- Macedonian сестра #340
- Malay kakak older sister #569
- Malayalam സഹോദരി #550
- Norwegian søster #794
- Persian خواهر #546
- Polish siostra #859
- Portuguese irmã #469
- Romanian sora #544
- Russian сестра #617
- Serbian sestra #587
- Slovak sestra #366
- Slovenian sestra #270
- Spanish hermana sister; female equivalent of hermano #456
- Swedish syster a sister #475
- Tagalog ate elder sister; big sister #499
- Telugu సోదరి #706
- Turkish abla older sister #2,280
- Ukrainian сестра #525
- Urdu بہن #956
- Vietnamese chị I/me, your big sister #197
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.