How to say “sky” in 44 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 trời is the 321st most used word.
- Afrikaans hemel #356
- Albanian qiell #1,085
- Armenian երկինք #440
- Basque zeru #852
- Bengali আকাশ #930
- Bosnian nebo #1,590
- Catalan cel #550
- Chinese 天空 sky; heavens; firmament #660
- Croatian nebo #1,643
- Czech nebe #1,504
- Danish himlen #1,075
- Dutch hemel sky, heavens #814
- Esperanto ĉielo #370
- Estonian taevas #844
- Finnish taivas #1,818
- French ciel #938
- German himmel #758
- Greek ουρανό #1,591
- Hebrew שמים sky, skies, heavens, heaven #1,534
- Hindi आकाश #1,350
- Hungarian ég #494
- Icelandic himnum sky, the heavens #1,444
- Indonesian langit #895
- Italian cielo #706
- Korean 놀 glow, red sky #1,402
- Latvian debesīs #1,228
- Lithuanian dangaus #944
- Macedonian небо #2,242
- Malay langit #821
- Malayalam ആകാശം #887
- Norwegian himmelen #1,005
- Persian آسمان #1,235
- Polish nieba #1,956
- Portuguese céu #948
- Serbian nebo #1,537
- Slovak neba #981
- Slovenian nebo #675
- Spanish cielo #618
- Swedish himlen #1,249
- Tagalog langit #626
- Tamil வான் sky, the visible heavens #991
- Ukrainian небо #1,452
- Urdu آسمان #494
- Vietnamese trời #321
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.