How to say “today” in 49 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.
- hoy/ˈoi/ Spanish
- сегодня[sʲɪˈvodʲnʲə] Russian
- اليوم/al.jaw.ma/ Arabic
- 今天/t͡ɕin⁵⁵ tʰi̯ɛn⁵⁵/ Chinese
- 오늘[o̞nɯɭ] Korean
- आज/ɑːd͡ʒ/ Hindi
“today” in Spanish: hoy · French: aujourd'hui · German: heute · Italian: oggi · Portuguese: hoje · Chinese: 今天 · Korean: 오늘 · Russian: сегодня
It is commonest in Chinese, where 今天 is the 27th most used word.
Today in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans vandag/fənˈdaχ/ #177
- Albanian sot[sot] #158
- Arabic اليوم/al.jaw.ma/ #76
- Armenian այսօր/ɑjˈsoɾ/ #182
- Basque gaur/ɡau̯r/ #75
- Bengali আজ/ad͡ʒ/ #132
- Bosnian danas/dǎnas/ #184
- Bulgarian днес[dnɛs] #169
- Catalan avui[əˈβuj] #246
- Chinese 今天/t͡ɕin⁵⁵ tʰi̯ɛn⁵⁵/ #27
- Croatian danas/dǎnas/ #184
- Czech dnes[ˈdnɛs] #177
- Dutch vandaag/vɑnˈdaːx/ #282
- English yesterday/ˈjɛstɹdeɪ/ On the day before today #688
- Esperanto hodiaŭ/hoˈdiau̯/ #152
- Estonian täna/ˈtænɑ/ #135
- Finnish tänään/ˈtænæːn/ #173
- French aujourd'hui/o.ʒuʁ.d‿ɥi/ #268
- Galician hoxe/ˈoʃe/ #165
- Georgian დღეს[d̥ʁe̞s] #103
- German heute/ˈhɔʏ̯tə/ #141
- Greek σήμερα/ˈsi.me.ra/ #177
- Hebrew היום/haˈjom/ #115
- Hindi आज/ɑːd͡ʒ/ #153
- Hungarian ma[ˈmɒ] #95
- Indonesian sekarang/səˈkaraŋ/ now, today #39
- Italian oggi/ˈɔd.d͡ʒi/ #233
- Korean 오늘[o̞nɯɭ] #69
- Latvian šodien[ˈʃuɔ̯d̪iɛn̪] #198
- Lithuanian šiandien[²ˈʃʲɛnʲˑdʲiɛn] #125
- Macedonian денес[ˈdɛnɛs] #188
- Malay sekarang/səˈka.raŋ/ now, today #38
- Malayalam ഇന്ന്/in̪n̪ɨ/ today, this day #61
- Persian امروز[ʔem.ɹúːz] #121
- Polish dziś/ˈd͡ʑiɕ/ #196
- Portuguese hoje/ˈo.ʒi/ #182
- Romanian azi/ˈazʲ/ #289
- Russian сегодня[sʲɪˈvodʲnʲə] #122
- Serbian danas/dǎnas/ #184
- Slovak dnes/dɲɛs/ #93
- Slovenian danes/dàːnəs/ #122
- Spanish hoy/ˈoi/ today, tonight #200
- Swedish idag/ɪˈdɑː(ɡ)/ #331
- Tagalog ngayon/ŋaˈjon/ now; today; by now; yet; currently; at present #38
- Tamil இன்று/ɪnrɯ/ #108
- Telugu నేడు/neːɖu/ today, this day #147
- Turkish bugün/buˈɟyn/ #170
- Ukrainian сьогодні[sʲɔˈɦɔdʲnʲi] #145
- Urdu آج/ɑːd͡ʒ/ #131
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) and Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.