How to say “three” in 52 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.
- tres/ˈtɾes/ Spanish
- три[trʲi] Russian
- ثلاثة/θa.laː.θa/ Arabic
- 세[sʰe̞(ː)] Korean
- तीन/t̪iːn/ Hindi
- τρεις/ˈtɾis/ Greek
“three” in Spanish: tres · French: trois · German: drei · Italian: tre · Portuguese: três · Korean: 세 · Russian: три · Arabic: ثلاثة
It is commonest in Basque, where hiru is the 129th most used word.
Three in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans drie/dri/ #250
- Albanian tre/tɾe/ #187
- Arabic ثلاثة/θa.laː.θa/ #179
- Armenian երեք/jeˈɾekʰ/ #166
- Basque hiru/hiɾu/ #129
- Bengali তিন/t̪in/ #260
- Bosnian tri/trîː/ #194
- Bulgarian три[tri] #215
- Catalan tres[ˈtɾɛs] #212
- Croatian tri/trîː/ #198
- Czech tři[ˈtr̝̊ɪ] #233
- Danish tre[ˈtˢʁ̥ɛˀ] #179
- Dutch drie/dri/ #215
- English tree/t͡ʃɹɪj/ Pronunciation spelling of three #1,057
- Esperanto tri/tri/ #184
- Estonian kolm/ˈkolm/ #253
- Finnish kolme/ˈkolme(ˣ)/ #206
- French trois/tʁwa/ #231
- Galician tres/ˈtɾes/ #179
- Georgian სამი[sämi] #355
- German drei/dʁaɪ̯/ #254
- Greek τρεις/ˈtɾis/ three, 3 #415
- Hebrew שלושה/ʃa.loːˈʃaː/ #381
- Hindi तीन/t̪iːn/ #260
- Hungarian három[ˈhaːrom] #223
- Icelandic þrjú[ˈθrjuː] #1,459
- Indonesian tiga/ˈtiɡa/ #252
- Italian tre/ˈtrɛ/ #232
- Korean 세[sʰe̞(ː)] #272
- Latvian trīs[triːs] #170
- Lithuanian trys[²ˈtʲrʲiːs] #252
- Macedonian три[tri] #177
- Malay tiga/ˈtiɡa/ #242
- Malayalam മൂന്ന്/muːn̪n̪ɨ/ #130
- Norwegian tre/tɾeː/ #163
- Persian سه[se] #136
- Polish trzy/ˈtʂɘ/ #267
- Portuguese três/ˈtɾe(j)s/ #215
- Romanian trei/ˈtrej/ #204
- Russian три[trʲi] #249
- Serbian tri/trîː/ #194
- Slovak tri/tri/ #206
- Slovenian tri/tríː/ #149
- Spanish tres/ˈtɾes/ #201
- Swedish tre/treː/ #171
- Tagalog tatlo/tatˈlo/ #543
- Tamil மூன்று/muːnrɯ/ #130
- Telugu ముగ్గురు/muɡːur̪u/ three persons #1,016
- Turkish üç/ˈyt͡ʃ/ #187
- Ukrainian три[trɪ] #169
- Urdu تین/t̪iːn/ #160
- Vietnamese ba[ʔɓaː˧˧] #307
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.