How to say “son” in 50 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 پسر is the 102nd most used word.
- Afrikaans seun #164
- Albanian bir #335
- Arabic ابن #384
- Armenian արքայազն prince, son of a king #424
- Basque semea #229
- Bengali পুত্র #618
- Bosnian sin #383
- Bulgarian син #399
- Catalan fill #169
- Chinese 兒子 #789
- Croatian sin #402
- Czech syn #575
- Danish søn #261
- Dutch zoon #294
- English brother Son of the same parents as another person #294
- Esperanto filo #210
- Estonian poeg #369
- French fiston boy, son, sonny, lad, young man #1,963
- Galician fillo #172
- Georgian ვაჟი #205
- German sohn #307
- Greek γιος son, male child #569
- Hebrew בן #147
- Hindi बेटा #275
- Hungarian rohadék bastard, son of a bitch, scumbag, fucker #1,514
- Icelandic sonur #306
- Indonesian bangsat asshole, son of a bitch #1,522
- Italian figlio #240
- Korean 아들 #303
- Latvian dēls #266
- Lithuanian sūnus #278
- Macedonian синко #677
- Malay bangsat asshole, son of a bitch #1,402
- Malayalam മകൻ #447
- Norwegian sønn a son #434
- Persian پسر #102
- Polish syn #606
- Portuguese filho #188
- Romanian fii #172
- Russian сын #367
- Serbian sin #387
- Slovak syn #316
- Slovenian sin #199
- Spanish hijo #187
- Swedish son a son #284
- Tagalog iho #1,301
- Tamil மகன் #164
- Telugu కుమారుడు #128
- Ukrainian син #345
- Urdu بیٹا son, boy #283
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.