How to say “speak” 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 Vietnamese, where nói is the 30th most used word.
- Afrikaans praat to talk, to speak #88
- Albanian flas to speak #223
- Arabic تحدث to speak, to talk #346
- Armenian խոսել to speak #231
- Basque mintzatu to speak #924
- Bengali বলতে to speak, say, state, tell #72
- Bosnian govoriti to speak, talk, converse #869
- Bulgarian говоря to speak, to talk #222
- Catalan parlar to speak #145
- Chinese 沉默 to be silent; to not speak; to be reticent;… #1,374
- Croatian govoriti to speak, talk, converse #622
- Czech mluvit to speak #244
- Danish snakke to talk, speak #400
- Dutch spreken to speak #386
- English pretend To speak or behave so as to give a false or… #1,580
- Esperanto parolas to speak, talk #190
- Estonian rääkida to talk, to speak #176
- Finnish puhua to speak, talk #172
- French parler to speak, talk #141
- Galician dicir to say, speak #94
- Georgian ლაპარაკობ to talk, to speak #842
- German reden to talk, to speak, to orate #183
- Greek μιλάς to speak; to talk #398
- Hebrew דבר to speak #71
- Hindi बोलो to speak, say #932
- Hungarian beszélni to speak, talk #268
- Icelandic mæla to speak, to say, to talk #1,735
- Indonesian berbicara to talk; to speak #236
- Italian parlare to talk, to speak #186
- Latvian runā to speak, to talk #172
- Lithuanian kalbi to speak #271
- Macedonian зборуваш to speak #206
- Malay cakap to talk; to speak #90
- Malayalam സംസാരിക്കുക to speak, to talk, verbal communication #1,385
- Norwegian snakke to speak #141
- Polish powiedzieć to speak, to talk #121
- Portuguese dizer to speak; to pronounce; to utter; to say #69
- Romanian vorbesc to speak #228
- Russian говорить to speak, to talk #252
- Serbian govoriti to speak, talk, converse #1,112
- Slovak hovoriť to talk, to speak #173
- Slovenian govoriti to speak #193
- Spanish hablar to talk; to speak; to communicate using words #154
- Swedish prata to talk, to speak #140
- Tagalog magsalita to speak; to talk #272
- Tamil சொல்ல to say, speak, tell, utter, mention, express #319
- Telugu మాట్లాడు to speak, talk #599
- Turkish konuşmak to speak, to talk, to use verbal language #355
- Ukrainian поговорити to talk, to speak, to have a word #359
- Urdu بولنا to speak #1,175
- Vietnamese nói to speak, to talk, to say, to tell #30
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.