How to say “south” in 42 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 Dutch, where z is the 135th most used word.
- Afrikaans suid #1,216
- Albanian jug #1,254
- Arabic جنوب #1,181
- Armenian հարավային southern, south #1,027
- Basque hego #931
- Bengali দক্ষিণ #816
- Bosnian jug #2,444
- Bulgarian юг #1,879
- Catalan sud #789
- Chinese 南方 #1,190
- Czech jižní south, southern #1,929
- Danish syd south, southwards #2,026
- Dutch z abbreviation of zuid; south #135
- English south Toward the south; southward #1,037
- Esperanto sudo #2,199
- Estonian lõuna #1,035
- French s abbreviation of sud; south #675
- Galician sur #480
- Georgian სამხრეთით #1,254
- German süden #2,483
- Greek νότια south, southerly #1,438
- Hebrew דרום #1,817
- Icelandic sunnan coming from the south #1,838
- Indonesian selatan #810
- Italian s abbreviation of sud; south #819
- Korean 남쪽 The South #1,629
- Macedonian југ #1,656
- Malay selatan #744
- Malayalam തെക്ക് #656
- Norwegian sør #2,157
- Persian جنوب the south #875
- Portuguese sul #1,031
- Romanian sud #1,046
- Slovak juh #1,293
- Slovenian jug #1,103
- Spanish s abbreviation of sur; south #740
- Tagalog timog #989
- Tamil தெற்கு south, southern #937
- Telugu దక్షిణ #370
- Turkish güney #1,045
- Urdu جنوب #868
- Vietnamese nam #692
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.