How to say “song” in 46 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 Tamil, where இசை is the 131st most used word.
- Afrikaans lied song, anthem #681
- Albanian këngë #940
- Arabic أغنية song, melody, tune #794
- Basque abesti #590
- Bengali গান #359
- Bulgarian песен #877
- Catalan cançó #1,312
- Chinese 歌 song; tune #528
- Czech píseň #1,699
- Danish viser song, ballad, ditty #561
- Dutch liedje #1,982
- Esperanto kanton #1,961
- Estonian laulu #1,168
- French chanson #967
- Galician canción #954
- Georgian სიმღერა #827
- German lied #1,453
- Greek τραγούδι #858
- Hebrew שיר #858
- Hindi गीत #1,129
- Hungarian dalt #2,079
- Icelandic söng #1,570
- Indonesian lagu #568
- Italian canzone #1,050
- Korean 가요 #207
- Latvian dziesmu #1,039
- Lithuanian daina #799
- Macedonian песна #761
- Malay lagu #577
- Malayalam പാട്ട് #328
- Norwegian sangen a song #1,894
- Persian ترانه #2,356
- Polish piosenkę #2,328
- Portuguese canção #1,526
- Romanian cântec #1,608
- Russian песня #1,690
- Slovak pieseň #711
- Slovenian pesem #382
- Spanish canción #849
- Swedish sång singing, song #2,087
- Tagalog kanta song; chant #665
- Tamil இசை music, song #131
- Telugu పాట #202
- Turkish şarkı #605
- Ukrainian пісня #1,549
- Urdu گیت song; track #1,430
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.