How to say “talk” 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 biseduar to talk, to converse #1,025
- Arabic تحدث to speak, to talk #346
- Armenian զրուցել to talk to, to talk with #1,417
- Bengali আলাপ #855
- Bosnian razgovor talk, conversation #760
- Bulgarian говоря to speak, to talk #222
- Chinese 商量 to consult; to discuss; to talk over #933
- Croatian govoriti to speak, talk, converse #622
- Czech probrat to discuss, to consult, to talk sth over #2,095
- Danish tale speech, talk, address, discourse #149
- Dutch praten to talk #174
- English chatter Talk, especially meaningless or unimportant… #2,206
- 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 falar to speak, to talk #148
- Georgian საუბარი conversation, talk #412
- German reden to talk, to speak, to orate #183
- Greek μιλάς to speak; to talk #398
- Hebrew שיחה conversation; talk, chat #682
- Hindi बात #53
- Hungarian beszélni to speak, talk #268
- Icelandic talar to talk #394
- Indonesian berbicara to talk; to speak #236
- Italian parlare to talk, to speak #186
- Korean 얘기 contraction of 이야기: talk; story #161
- Latvian runā to speak, to talk #172
- Lithuanian pakalbėti to talk #572
- Macedonian разговор talk, conversation #805
- Malay cakap to talk; to speak #90
- Malayalam സംസാരം talk, speech, conversation #505
- Norwegian tale speech, talk, address, discourse #1,271
- Persian صحبت talk, speech #101
- Polish powiedzieć to speak, to talk #121
- Portuguese falar to speak; to talk #99
- Romanian vorba talk, talking, speaking #316
- Russian поговорить to have a conversation, to talk #234
- Serbian razgovor talk, conversation #774
- Slovak hovoriť to talk, to speak #173
- Slovenian razgovor conversation, talk #1,141
- 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 பேச்சு conversation, speech, talk #385
- 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 بات talk, conversation #46
- 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.