How to say “smile” in 38 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 Afrikaans, where glimlag is the 449th most used word.
- Afrikaans glimlag #449
- Albanian buzëqeshje #1,692
- Basque irri #1,312
- Bengali হাসি #521
- Bulgarian усмивка #1,816
- Catalan somriure to smile #2,147
- Chinese 微笑 to smile #792
- Czech úsměv #1,973
- Danish smil #1,420
- Esperanto ridetu to smile #1,654
- Estonian naeratus #1,804
- French sourire to smile #1,517
- Galician sorriso #1,997
- German lächeln to smile #1,608
- Greek χαμόγελο #2,336
- Hebrew חייך to smile #738
- Hindi मुस्कान a smile #1,961
- Icelandic brosa to smile #1,272
- Indonesian tersenyum to smile #1,224
- Italian sorriso #2,295
- Korean 미소 a smile #2,019
- Latvian smaidu #2,213
- Lithuanian šypsena #1,559
- Macedonian насмевка #1,561
- Malay senyum to smile #1,239
- Malayalam പുഞ്ചിരി #1,508
- Norwegian smil a smile #1,596
- Persian لبخند #967
- Polish uśmiech #2,473
- Portuguese sorriso #2,444
- Serbian osmeh #2,054
- Slovenian nasmeh #871
- Spanish sonrisa #2,367
- Swedish le to smile #1,597
- Tagalog ngumiti to smile #1,677
- Tamil புன்னகை smile, gentle smile #810
- Urdu مسکراہٹ a smile #997
- Vietnamese cười #573
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.