How to say “sound” in 51 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 Galician, where son is the 30th most used word.
- Afrikaans klank #1,027
- Albanian shëndoshë well, healthy, sound #1,447
- Arabic صوت a sound #427
- Armenian ձայն #569
- Basque hots sound, noise #858
- Bengali রা #866
- Bosnian zvuk #1,205
- Bulgarian шум noise, sound, noisiness #1,474
- Catalan sona to sound, to make a sound #690
- Chinese 呵呵 sound of laughter #567
- Croatian zvuk #1,225
- Czech zní to sound #511
- Danish lyd to sound, to be realized #1,438
- Dutch klinkt to sound #467
- English an Used before a vowel sound #81
- Esperanto sonas to sound #784
- Estonian mõistlik reasonable, rationable, sound, good #1,334
- Finnish kuulostaa to sound #416
- French coup sound of the action #289
- Galician son #30
- Georgian ხმა voice, sound #248
- Greek φωνή voice, sound #869
- Hebrew נשמע to sound, to be heard #237
- Hindi ध्वनि sound, tone #1,263
- Hungarian hangzik to sound #516
- Icelandic hlakka to make the sound of an eagle #1,063
- Indonesian bus imitation sound of blowing wind; can be… #1,266
- Italian rumore noise, sound #1,464
- Korean 소리 #232
- Latvian skan to sound #1,600
- Lithuanian garsas #984
- Macedonian звучи to sound #365
- Malay bunyi #565
- Malayalam ഒച്ച sound, noise, voice #717
- Norwegian gal to make a sound characteristic of a rooster;… #520
- Persian صدا sound, call, voice #369
- Polish brzmi to sound, to be heard #507
- Portuguese som #1,394
- Romanian sun to ring or produce a sound in general #565
- Russian звук #1,752
- Serbian zvuk #1,204
- Slovak zvuk #755
- Slovenian zvok #622
- Spanish suena to sound, to ring #632
- Swedish låt to make sound #142
- Tagalog tunog #791
- Tamil ஒலி to sound, to roar, clamor, tinkle #333
- Telugu ధ్వని #258
- Turkish ses voice, sound #613
- Ukrainian звук #1,041
- Vietnamese thanh sound; tone; noise #525
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.