How to say “sleep” in 53 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 Telugu, where నిద్ర is the 166th most used word.
- Afrikaans slaap #172
- Albanian fle to sleep #694
- Arabic تصبح to sleep in the morning #387
- Armenian քնած to sleep #270
- Basque lo #176
- Bengali ঘুমানো to sleep #1,979
- Bosnian san #610
- Bulgarian спи to sleep #880
- Catalan dormir to sleep #524
- Chinese 上床 to go to bed; to go to sleep #497
- Croatian san #621
- Czech spát to sleep #646
- Danish sove to sleep #614
- Dutch slapen #518
- English asleep In a state of sleep; also, broadly, resting #1,332
- Esperanto dormas to sleep #517
- Estonian magama To sleep #587
- Finnish unta #1,190
- French dormir to sleep #689
- Galician durmir to sleep #476
- Georgian ძილი #1,136
- German schlafen to sleep #557
- Greek ύπνο #874
- Hebrew שינה sleep: a state or period of being asleep #815
- Hindi नींद #1,132
- Hungarian aludni to sleep #870
- Icelandic sofa to sleep #379
- Indonesian menginap to stay and sleep #2,196
- Italian dormire to sleep #701
- Korean 잠 sleep, nap #896
- Latvian gulēt to sleep, to be asleep #686
- Lithuanian miegoti to sleep #546
- Macedonian спијам to sleep #860
- Malay tidur to sleep #249
- Malayalam ഉറക്കം #476
- Norwegian sove to sleep #584
- Persian خواب #346
- Polish spać to sleep #767
- Portuguese dormir to sleep; to be asleep #411
- Romanian dormi to sleep #849
- Russian спать to sleep #641
- Serbian san #582
- Slovak spať to sleep #422
- Slovenian spati to sleep #490
- Spanish dormir to sleep #553
- Swedish sova to sleep #598
- Tagalog matulog to sleep #662
- Tamil தூக்கம் #726
- Telugu నిద్ర #166
- Turkish uyku sleep, nap #1,505
- Ukrainian спати to sleep #625
- Urdu نیند sleep, slumber #1,051
- Vietnamese ngủ to sleep #320
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.