How to say “sword” in 41 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 Tagalog, where espada is the 209th most used word.
- Afrikaans swaard #995
- Albanian shpata #1,355
- Arabic سيف sword, sabre, foil, rapier, scimitar #1,948
- Armenian սուսեր thin sword, rapier, epee #434
- Basque ezpata #538
- Bengali তরবারি sword, scimiter #1,247
- Bosnian mač #1,731
- Bulgarian меч #2,033
- Catalan espasa #780
- Croatian mač #1,620
- Czech meč #1,779
- Danish sværd #1,706
- Dutch zwaard a sword, heavy blade weapon #1,714
- Estonian mõõk #1,370
- French épée #2,082
- Galician espada sword, which is designed to cut, stab, slash… #997
- Georgian ხმალი sword, longsword #709
- German schwert #1,760
- Greek σπαθί #1,772
- Hebrew חרב #1,772
- Hindi तलवार #998
- Indonesian pedang #865
- Italian spada #1,871
- Korean 칼 knife, sword #418
- Latvian zobenu #1,381
- Macedonian меч #950
- Malayalam അതി #923
- Norwegian sverd a sword #2,253
- Persian شمشیر sword, scimitar, shamshir #1,883
- Portuguese espada sword, which is designed to cut, stab, slash… #1,660
- Serbian mač #1,601
- Slovak meč #901
- Slovenian meč #596
- Spanish espada sword, which is designed to cut, stab, slash… #1,796
- Swedish svärd a sword #2,097
- Tagalog espada #209
- Tamil வாள் sword, scimitar, saw, plough, scissors #641
- Turkish kılıç #1,893
- Ukrainian меч #1,492
- Urdu تلوار a sword #762
- Vietnamese kiếm #383
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.