How to say “song” in 46 different 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.
- canción/kanˈθjon/ Spanish
- песня[ˈpʲesnʲə] Russian
- أغنية/ʔuɣ.nij.ja/ Arabic
- 歌/kɤ⁵⁵/ Chinese
- 가요[ka̠jo] Korean
- गीत/ɡiːt̪/ Hindi
“song” in Spanish: canción · French: chanson · German: lied · Italian: canzone · Portuguese: canção · Chinese: 歌 · Korean: 가요 · Russian: песня
It is commonest in Telugu, where పాట is the 202nd most used word.
Song in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans lied/ˈlit/ song, anthem #681
- Albanian këngë/ˈkən.ɡə/ #940
- Arabic أغنية/ʔuɣ.nij.ja/ song, melody, tune #794
- Basque abesti/abes̺ti/ #590
- Bengali গান/ɡan/ #359
- Bulgarian песен[ˈpɛsɛn] #877
- Catalan cançó[kənˈso] #1,312
- Chinese 歌/kɤ⁵⁵/ song; tune #528
- Czech píseň[ˈpiːsɛɲ] #1,699
- Danish viser/ˈviːsɐ/ song, ballad, ditty #561
- Dutch liedje/ˈlitjə/ #1,982
- Esperanto kanton/ˈkanton/ #1,961
- Estonian laulu/ˈlɑu̯lu/ #1,168
- French chanson/ʃɑ̃.sɔ̃/ #967
- Galician canción/kanˈθjoŋ/ #954
- Georgian სიმღერა[simʁe̞ɾä] #827
- German lied/ˈliːt/ #1,453
- Greek τραγούδι/traˈɣu.ði/ #858
- Hebrew שיר/ʃiːr/ #858
- Hindi गीत/ɡiːt̪/ #1,129
- Hungarian dalt[ˈdɒlt] #2,079
- Icelandic söng[ˈsœiŋk] #1,570
- Indonesian lagu/ˈlaɡu/ #568
- Italian canzone/kanˈt͡so.ne/ #1,050
- Korean 가요[ka̠jo] #207
- Latvian dziesmu/ˈdziesmu/ #1,039
- Lithuanian daina[d̪ɐɪ̯ˑˈn̪ɐ] #799
- Macedonian песна[ˈpɛsna] #761
- Malay lagu/ˈlaɡu/ #577
- Malayalam പാട്ട്/paːʈʈɨ/ #328
- Norwegian sangen/ˈsɑŋən/ a song #1,894
- Persian ترانه[t̪ʰæ.ɹɒː.né] #2,356
- Polish piosenkę/pjɔˈsɛŋ.kɛ/ #2,328
- Portuguese canção/kɐ̃ˈsɐ̃w̃/ #1,526
- Romanian cântec/ˈkɨntek/ #1,608
- Russian песня[ˈpʲesnʲə] #1,690
- Slovak pieseň/pɪ̯eseɲ/ #711
- Slovenian pesem/péːsəm/ #382
- Spanish canción/kanˈθjon/ #849
- Swedish sång/ˈsɔŋː/ singing, song #2,087
- Tagalog kanta/kanˈta/ song; chant #665
- Tamil இசை/ɪtʃɐɪ̯/ music, song #131
- Telugu పాట/paːʈa/ #202
- Turkish şarkı/ʃɑɾˈkɯ/ #605
- Ukrainian пісня[ˈpʲisʲnʲɐ] #1,549
- Urdu گیت/ɡiːt̪/ song; track #1,430
The speaker reads the word in the voice the LangX app uses for that language — synthesised, not a recording of a native speaker, so treat it as a guide. A row without a button has no reading we are free to use, or none we trust, yet. Voices for Bengali (google (bn_BD), CC BY-SA 4.0), Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), CC BY-SA 4.0), Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 4.0) and Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.