How to say “south” in 42 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.
- s/ˈɛse/ Spanish
- جنوب/d͡ʒa.nuːb/ Arabic
- 南方/nän³⁵ fɑŋ⁵⁵/ Chinese
- 남쪽[na̠mt͡ɕ͈o̞k̚] Korean
- νότια/ˈnotiˌa/ Greek
- דרום/daˈʁom/ Hebrew
“south” in Spanish: s · French: s · German: süden · Italian: s · Portuguese: sul · Chinese: 南方 · Korean: 남쪽 · Arabic: جنوب
It is commonest in Dutch, where z is the 135th most used word.
South in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans suid/sœʏ̯t/ #1,216
- Albanian jug/juɡ/ #1,254
- Arabic جنوب/d͡ʒa.nuːb/ #1,181
- Armenian հարավային/hɑɾɑfɑˈjin/ southern, south #1,027
- Basque hego/heɡo/ #931
- Bengali দক্ষিণ/d̪ɔkʰːin/ #816
- Bosnian jug/jûɡ/ #2,444
- Bulgarian юг[ju̟k] #1,879
- Catalan sud[ˈsut] #789
- Chinese 南方/nän³⁵ fɑŋ⁵⁵/ #1,190
- Czech jižní[ˈjɪʒɲiː] south, southern #1,929
- Danish syd/syd/ south, southwards #2,026
- Dutch z/ˈzɛt/ abbreviation of zuid; south #135
- English south/ˈsaʊ̯θ/ Toward the south; southward #1,037
- Esperanto sudo/ˈsudo/ #2,199
- Estonian lõuna/ˈlɤu̯nɑ/ #1,035
- French s/ˈɛs/ abbreviation of sud; south #675
- Galician sur/ˈsuɾ/ #480
- Georgian სამხრეთით[sämχɾe̞tʰitʰ] #1,254
- German süden/ˈzyːdən/ #2,483
- Greek νότια/ˈnotiˌa/ south, southerly #1,438
- Hebrew דרום/daˈʁom/ #1,817
- Icelandic sunnan[ˈsʏn(ː)an] coming from the south #1,838
- Indonesian selatan[səˈlat̪an] #810
- Italian s/z/ abbreviation of sud; south #819
- Korean 남쪽[na̠mt͡ɕ͈o̞k̚] The South #1,629
- Macedonian југ[juk] #1,656
- Malay selatan/səlatan/ #744
- Malayalam തെക്ക്/t̪ekːɨ̆/ #656
- Norwegian sør/ˈsøːr/ #2,157
- Persian جنوب[d͡ʒo.núːb̥] the south #875
- Portuguese sul/ˈsuw/ #1,031
- Romanian sud/sud/ #1,046
- Slovak juh/jux/ #1,293
- Slovenian jug/júːk/ #1,103
- Spanish s/ˈɛse/ abbreviation of sur; south #740
- Tagalog timog/ˈtimoɡ/ #989
- Tamil தெற்கு/t̪ɛrkɯ/ south, southern #937
- Telugu దక్షిణ/d̪akʂiɳa/ #370
- Turkish güney/ɟyˈnej/ #1,045
- Urdu جنوب/d͡ʒə.nuːb/ #868
- Vietnamese nam[naːm˧˧] #692
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.