How to say “sound” in 51 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.
- suena/ˈswena/ Spanish
- звук[zvuk] Russian
- صوت/sˤawt/ Arabic
- 소리[sʰo̞ɾi] Korean
- ध्वनि/d̪ʱʋə.niː/ Hindi
- נשמע/niʃˈma/ Hebrew
“sound” in Spanish: suena · Portuguese: som · Korean: 소리 · Russian: звук · Arabic: صوت · Hindi: ध्वनि
It is commonest in Galician, where son is the 30th most used word.
Sound in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans klank/klaŋk/ #1,027
- Albanian shëndoshë/ʃənˈdɔʃə/ well, healthy, sound #1,447
- Arabic صوت/sˤawt/ a sound #427
- Armenian ձայն/d͡zɑjn/ #569
- Basque hots/ot͡s̺/ sound, noise #858
- Bengali রা/ɾa/ #866
- Bosnian zvuk/zʋûːk/ #1,205
- Bulgarian шум[ʃu̟m] noise, sound, noisiness #1,474
- Catalan sona[ˈsɔ.nə] to sound, to make a sound #690
- Chinese 呵呵/xɤ⁵⁵ xɤ⁵⁵/ sound of laughter #567
- Croatian zvuk/zʋûːk/ #1,225
- Czech zní[ˈzɲiː] to sound #511
- Danish lyd/lyːd/ to sound, to be realized #1,438
- Dutch klinkt/klɪŋkt/ to sound #467
- English an[ˈeən] Used before a vowel sound #81
- Esperanto sonas/ˈsonas/ to sound #784
- Estonian mõistlik/ˈmɤi̯stlik/ reasonable, rationable, sound, good #1,334
- Finnish kuulostaa/ˈkuːlostɑːˣ/ to sound #416
- French coup/ku/ sound of the action #289
- Galician son/ˈsoŋ/ #30
- Georgian ხმა[χmä] voice, sound #248
- Greek φωνή/foˈni/ voice, sound #869
- Hebrew נשמע/niʃˈma/ to sound, to be heard #237
- Hindi ध्वनि/d̪ʱʋə.niː/ sound, tone #1,263
- Hungarian hangzik[ˈhɒŋɡzik] to sound #516
- Icelandic hlakka/ˈl̥ahka/ to make the sound of an eagle #1,063
- Indonesian bus/bʊs/ imitation sound of blowing wind; can be… #1,266
- Italian rumore/ruˈmo.re/ noise, sound #1,464
- Korean 소리[sʰo̞ɾi] #232
- Latvian skan/ˈskan/ to sound #1,600
- Lithuanian garsas[²ˈɡɐrˑsɐs] #984
- Macedonian звучи[ˈzvut͡ʃi] to sound #365
- Malay bunyi/buɲi/ #565
- Malayalam ഒച്ച/ot͡ːʃɐ/ sound, noise, voice #717
- Norwegian gal/ˈɡɑːl/ to make a sound characteristic of a rooster;… #520
- Persian صدا[se.d̪ɒ́ː] sound, call, voice #369
- Polish brzmi/ˈbʐmi/ to sound, to be heard #507
- Portuguese som/ˈsõ/ #1,394
- Romanian sun/ˈsun/ to ring or produce a sound in general #565
- Russian звук[zvuk] #1,752
- Serbian zvuk/zʋûːk/ #1,204
- Slovak zvuk/zvuk/ #755
- Slovenian zvok/zʋóːk/ #622
- Spanish suena/ˈswena/ to sound, to ring #632
- Swedish låt/ˈloːt/ to make sound #142
- Tagalog tunog/tuˈnoɡ/ #791
- Tamil ஒலி/oliː/ to sound, to roar, clamor, tinkle #333
- Telugu ధ్వని/d̪ʱʋani/ #258
- Turkish ses/ˈses/ voice, sound #613
- Ukrainian звук[zwuk] #1,041
- Vietnamese thanh[tʰajŋ̟˧˧] sound; tone; noise #525
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), Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0) and Vietnamese (vais1000 (vi_VN), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.