How to say “telephone” in 44 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 Urdu, where فون is the 143rd most used word.
- Afrikaans foon A telephone, a phone #720
- Albanian telefon #472
- Basque telefono #654
- Bengali টেলিফোন #1,484
- Bosnian telefon #549
- Bulgarian телефон #874
- Catalan telèfon #479
- Chinese 電話 telephone; phone #650
- Croatian telefon #604
- Czech telefon phone, telephone #634
- Danish ringer To call, to telephone #368
- Dutch telefoon #510
- Esperanto telefonis to telephone #788
- Estonian telefoni #760
- Finnish puhelin telephone, phone #1,422
- French téléphone #442
- Galician teléfono telephone, phone #615
- Georgian ალო A greeting used when answering the telephone,… #758
- German telefon #622
- Greek τηλέφωνο telephone, phone #432
- Hebrew הלו A greeting used when answering the telephone #373
- Hungarian telefont #1,376
- Icelandic síma to telephone #991
- Indonesian telepon #404
- Italian telefono telephone, phone #490
- Korean 전화 telephone, phone #270
- Latvian telefonu #673
- Lithuanian telefonas #684
- Macedonian телефон #438
- Malay telefon #239
- Norwegian telefonen a telephone or phone #570
- Persian تلفن #384
- Polish telefon #451
- Portuguese telefone to telephone #516
- Romanian telefon #427
- Russian телефон #595
- Serbian telefon #584
- Slovak telefón #391
- Spanish teléfono #442
- Swedish telefon a phone, a telephone #782
- Tagalog telepono #326
- Turkish telefon #469
- Ukrainian телефон #500
- Urdu فون phone, telephone #143
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.