How to say “soldier” in 48 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 Persian, where نفر is the 116th most used word.
- Afrikaans soldate #624
- Albanian ushtar #820
- Arabic جندي #1,186
- Armenian զինվոր #916
- Basque soldadu #503
- Bengali সেনা army; a soldier #1,043
- Bosnian vojnik #1,416
- Bulgarian войник soldier, fighter #1,547
- Catalan soldats #891
- Chinese 士兵 #417
- Croatian vojnik #1,429
- Czech voják #2,097
- Danish soldater #1,291
- Dutch soldaten soldier, private #1,276
- Esperanto soldatoj #851
- Estonian sõdur soldier, warrior #1,138
- Finnish sotilas #2,099
- French soldats #1,473
- Galician soldado #694
- Georgian ჯარისკაცი #670
- German soldaten #1,305
- Greek στρατιώτες #1,236
- Hebrew חייל #1,135
- Hindi सैनिकों #1,229
- Hungarian katona #1,526
- Indonesian militer #933
- Italian soldato #1,522
- Korean 군인 military personnel; soldier #1,331
- Latvian kareivji soldier, private rank in the army; a soldier… #2,102
- Lithuanian karys warrior, soldier #1,070
- Macedonian војници #752
- Malay askar #733
- Malayalam പട്ടാളക്കാരൻ #2,046
- Norwegian soldater #1,287
- Persian نفر #116
- Portuguese soldado #1,427
- Romanian soldat #1,186
- Russian солдат #1,774
- Serbian vojnik #1,462
- Slovak vojak #764
- Slovenian vojak #517
- Spanish soldados #1,387
- Swedish soldater a soldier #1,391
- Tagalog sundalo #436
- Tamil சிப்பாய் soldier, sepoy #1,064
- Turkish asker #987
- Ukrainian солдат #1,376
- Urdu سپاہی soldier, fighter #636
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.