How to say “story” in 40 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.
- قصة/qisˤ.sˤa/ Arabic
- 故事/ku⁵¹ ʂɻ̩¹/ Chinese
- कहानी/kə.ɦɑː.niː/ Hindi
- গল্প/ɡɔlpo/ Bengali
- கதை/kɐd̪ɐɪ̯/ Tamil
- കഥ/kɐt̪(ʰ)ɐ/ Malayalam
“story” in French: histoire · Chinese: 故事 · Arabic: قصة · Hindi: कहानी · Turkish: hikâye
It is commonest in Vietnamese, where chuyện is the 53rd most used word.
Story in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans storie/ˈstʊəri/ #375
- Albanian tregim/tɾɛɡim/ story, tale #1,623
- Arabic قصة/qisˤ.sˤa/ story, tale, relation #322
- Basque ipuin/ipui̯n/ story, tale #1,031
- Bengali গল্প/ɡɔlpo/ #343
- Bosnian priča/prîːt͡ʃa/ story, tale #402
- Catalan conte[ˈkon.tə] tale; story #2,033
- Chinese 故事/ku⁵¹ ʂɻ̩¹/ story; tale; narrative; plot #119
- Croatian priča/prîːt͡ʃa/ story, tale #416
- Czech příběh[ˈpr̝̊iːbjɛx] #660
- Danish etage[eˈtˢæˀɕə] storey, story, floor #2,186
- Dutch verhalen/vərˈhaːlən/ #1,477
- English joke/ˈd͡ʒoʊ̯k/ An amusing story #1,016
- Esperanto rakonto/raˈkonto/ narration, narrative, story, tale #1,199
- Estonian lugu/ˈluɡ̊u/ tale, story #400
- Finnish tarina/ˈtɑrinɑ/ story, tale #1,038
- French histoire/is.twaʁ/ #310
- Hebrew סיפור/siˈpuʁ/ A story: a sequence of real or fictional… #465
- Hindi कहानी/kə.ɦɑː.niː/ story, narrative #477
- Hungarian történet[ˈtørteːnɛt] story, tale #1,146
- Icelandic sögu/ˈsœːɣʏ/ a story #534
- Indonesian cerita/t͡ʃəˈrita/ #416
- Italian vicenda/viˈt͡ʃɛn.da/ affair, event, story #2,490
- Korean 소설[ˈsʰo̞(ː)sʰʌ̹ɭ] fictional literature; fictional story #1,236
- Latvian stāsts[stâːsts] #684
- Macedonian приказна[ˈprikazna] #384
- Malay cerita/t͡ʃəˈrita/ #381
- Malayalam കഥ/kɐt̪(ʰ)ɐ/ #174
- Norwegian fortelle/fɔɾˈtɛlːɛ/ to recount, as a story #258
- Persian داستان[d̪ɒːs.t̪ʰɒ́ːn] tale, story #307
- Romanian povestea/poˈves.te̯a/ story, yarn, tale #692
- Serbian priča/prîːt͡ʃa/ story, tale #365
- Slovak príbeh/priːbex/ event, incident, story #347
- Slovenian zgodba/zɡóːdba/ #318
- Tagalog kuwento/kuˈento/ story; tale; narrative #1,304
- Tamil கதை/kɐd̪ɐɪ̯/ story, anecdote, narrative #107
- Telugu కథ/kat̪ʰa/ #211
- Turkish hikâye/hi.cɑːje/ #1,828
- Urdu کہانی/kə.ɦɑː.niː/ story, tale #197
- Vietnamese chuyện[t͡ɕwiən˧˨ʔ] a story, a tale, or an anecdote #53
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.