How to say “war” in 50 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.
- guerra/ˈɡera/ Spanish
- война[vɐjˈna] Russian
- 戰爭/ʈ͡ʂän⁵¹ ʈ͡ʂɤŋ⁵⁵/ Chinese
- 전쟁[ˈt͡ɕɘ(ː)ɲd͡ʑɛŋ] Korean
- युद्ध/jʊd̪d̪ʱ/ Hindi
- πόλεμο/ˈpoleˌmo/ Greek
“war” in Spanish: guerra · French: guerre · German: kriege · Italian: guerra · Portuguese: guerra · Chinese: 戰爭 · Korean: 전쟁 · Russian: война
It is commonest in Urdu, where جنگ is the 126th most used word.
War in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans oorlog/ˈʊər.lɔχ/ #270
- Albanian luftë/luftə/ war, fight #499
- Armenian կռիվներ/kərivˈner/ fight, struggle; war; battle #1,139
- Basque gerra/ɡera/ #285
- Bengali যুদ্ধ/d͡ʒud̪ʱːo/ #243
- Bosnian rat/rât/ #565
- Bulgarian война[vojˈna] warfare, war #571
- Catalan guerra[ˈɡɛ.rə] #276
- Chinese 戰爭/ʈ͡ʂän⁵¹ ʈ͡ʂɤŋ⁵⁵/ war; invasion #1,512
- Croatian rat/rât/ #597
- Czech války[ˈvaːlkɪ] #1,193
- Danish krig[ˈkʰʁ̥iˀ] #646
- Dutch krijgen/ˈkrɛi̯ɣə(n)/ #223
- Esperanto milito/miˈlito/ #268
- Estonian sõda/ˈsɤd̥ɑ/ #679
- Finnish sota/ˈsotɑ/ #1,457
- French guerre/ɡɛʁ/ #457
- Galician guerra/ˈɡɛra/ #175
- Georgian ომი[o̞mi] #301
- German kriege/ˈkɾiːɡə/ war, warfare #1,176
- Greek πόλεμο/ˈpoleˌmo/ #712
- Hebrew מלחמה/milħaːˈmaː/ war, battle #757
- Hindi युद्ध/jʊd̪d̪ʱ/ #386
- Hungarian háború[ˈhaːboruː] #1,005
- Icelandic stríð[ˈstriːð] #2,104
- Indonesian perang/pəˈraŋ/ #406
- Italian guerra/ˈɡwɛr.ra/ war, warfare #530
- Korean 전쟁[ˈt͡ɕɘ(ː)ɲd͡ʑɛŋ] #650
- Latvian kara/ˈkara/ #641
- Lithuanian karas[²ˈkɑːrɐs] #508
- Macedonian војна[ˈvɔjna] #403
- Malay perang/pəˈraŋ/ #410
- Malayalam യുദ്ധം/jud̪d̪ʱɐm/ #139
- Norwegian krig/kɾiːɡ/ #718
- Persian جنگ[d͡ʒæɲɡʲ̥] #249
- Polish wojny/ˈvɔj.nɘ/ #1,133
- Portuguese guerra/ˈɡɛ.ʁɐ/ #398
- Romanian război/rəzˈboj/ #644
- Russian война[vɐjˈna] war, warfare #1,404
- Serbian rat/rât/ #597
- Slovak vojna/vɔjna/ #610
- Slovenian vojna/ʋɔ̀ːjna/ #450
- Spanish guerra/ˈɡera/ war, warfare #421
- Swedish krig/kriːɡ/ #764
- Tagalog digmaan/diɡˈmaʔan/ war; battle #725
- Tamil போர்/poːɾ/ war, fight, battle #882
- Turkish savaş/sɑˈvɑʃ/ #431
- Ukrainian війна[ʋʲii̯ˈna] #939
- Urdu جنگ/d͡ʒəŋɡ/ #126
- Vietnamese chiến[t͡ɕiən˧˦] a war, fight #226
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.