How to say “trousers” in 35 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.
- штаны[ʂtɐˈnɨ] Russian
- παντελόνι/pan.deˈlo.ni/ Greek
- شلوار[ʃæl.vɒ́ːɹ] Persian
“trousers” in French: pantalon · German: hose · Russian: штаны · Greek: παντελόνι
It is commonest in Malay, where seluar is the 872nd most used word.
Trousers in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans broek/bruk/ A pair of trousers, pair of pants #1,110
- Albanian pantallona/pantaˈɫona/ trousers, pants #1,686
- Basque galtzak/ɡalt͡s̻ak/ #1,184
- Bosnian pantalone/pantalǒːne/ trousers, pants #1,996
- Catalan pantalons/pəntəˈlons/ pants; trousers #1,663
- Croatian hlače/xlât͡ʃe/ trousers, pants #1,442
- Czech kalhoty[ˈkalɦotɪ] #1,611
- Danish bukserne/ˈbɔɡsɐnə/ trousers, pants #1,628
- Dutch broek/bruk/ a pair of trousers, pair of pants #1,125
- Esperanto pantalonon/ˌpantaˈlonon/ trousers, pants #1,370
- Estonian püksid/ˈpyksid̥/ trousers, pants #1,145
- French pantalon/pɑ̃.ta.lɔ̃/ trousers, pants #1,860
- Galician pantalóns/pantaˈloŋs/ trousers, pants #1,346
- German hose/ˈhoːzə/ #1,713
- Greek παντελόνι/pan.deˈlo.ni/ trousers, pants #1,736
- Icelandic buxur[ˈpʏksʏr] trousers, pants #1,771
- Indonesian celana/t͡ʃəˈlana/ trousers, pants #1,116
- Italian pantaloni/pan.taˈlo.ni/ pants, trousers #1,625
- Korean 바지[pa̠d͡ʑi] pants, trousers #1,026
- Latvian bikses[biksɛs] pants, trousers; shorts #1,078
- Lithuanian kelnės[¹ˈkʲæˑlʲnʲeːs] pants, trousers #2,016
- Macedonian панталони[panˈtaɫɔni] pants, trousers #2,074
- Malay seluar/sə.lu.a(r)/ trousers, pants #872
- Norwegian buksene/ˈbʊksn̩ə/ trousers or pants #2,049
- Persian شلوار[ʃæl.vɒ́ːɹ] trousers, pants #1,197
- Polish spodnie/ˈspɔd.ɲɛ/ pants, trousers #2,320
- Romanian pantaloni/ˌpantaˈlonʲʲ/ pants, trousers #1,712
- Russian штаны[ʂtɐˈnɨ] trousers, pants #2,216
- Serbian pantalone/pantalǒːne/ trousers, pants #1,546
- Slovenian hlače/xlàːt͡ʃɛ/ pants, trousers #494
- Spanish pantalones/pantaˈlones/ pants, trousers #1,377
- Swedish byxor/ˈbyːksuːr/ pants, trousers #2,378
- Tagalog pantalon/pantaˈlon/ pants; trousers #575
- Ukrainian штани[ʃtɐˈnɪ] trousers, pants #1,746
- Urdu پتلون/pət̪.luːn/ pants, trousers #1,442
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 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.