How to say “speech” in 40 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 Korean, where 말 is the 76th most used word.
- Afrikaans toespraak a speech, an address #1,296
- Arabic كلمة speech, utterance, statement #291
- Armenian խոսք #222
- Basque ixil quiet, reserved in speech #2,294
- Bengali বক্তৃতা lecture, a talk, a speech, an oration #1,779
- Bosnian govori #384
- Bulgarian реч speech, address #2,000
- Catalan parles #641
- Croatian govori #380
- Czech řeč #1,633
- Danish tale speech, talk, address, discourse #149
- English er Said when hesitating in speech #1,100
- Esperanto parolo #1,920
- Estonian kõne speech, speaking #686
- Finnish puheen speech, speaking #2,198
- French parole speech, language #1,272
- Georgian ლაპარაკი speech, talk #657
- Hebrew נאום speech, pitch, sermon #1,861
- Hindi भाषा language, speech #1,641
- Icelandic tala a short address, a speech #78
- Indonesian nah Used to conclude a speech or train of… #334
- Italian discorso speech, address, discourse #1,417
- Korean 말 #76
- Latvian runa speech, speaking, talking #528
- Macedonian говор #1,415
- Malay ucapan utterance, speech, greeting #1,195
- Malayalam സംസാരം talk, speech, conversation #505
- Norwegian talt to make a speech #966
- Persian صحبت talk, speech #101
- Polish mowy language, speech #1,170
- Portuguese falas #1,430
- Russian речь speech, language #914
- Serbian govori #389
- Slovak reč #920
- Slovenian govor #631
- Spanish hablas #764
- Tagalog talumpati speech; public talk; oration #1,358
- Tamil பேச்சு conversation, speech, talk #385
- Turkish söz word, statement, speech #228
- Urdu بین word, speech, utterance, saying #493
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.