How to say “wife” in 41 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 Chinese, where 妻子 is the 125th most used word.
- Afrikaans weduwee widow, surviving wife, dowager #922
- Arabic زوجة #548
- Basque emazte #559
- Bengali বউ #820
- Bosnian supruga wife, female spouse #1,260
- Catalan esposa wife; female equivalent of espòs #1,140
- Chinese 妻子 #125
- Croatian supruga wife, female spouse #963
- Czech manželka #1,798
- Danish kone #288
- English queen The wife, consort, or widow of a king #1,000
- Esperanto edzino #247
- Estonian abikaasa spouse, husband, wife #580
- Finnish vaimoni #747
- Galician esposa #679
- Georgian ცოლი #408
- Hindi पत्नी #347
- Hungarian feleségül #1,913
- Icelandic eiginkona #1,262
- Indonesian istri #602
- Italian moglie #304
- Korean 부인 #260
- Latvian sieva #439
- Lithuanian pati #220
- Macedonian сопруга wife, female spouse #900
- Malay isteri #372
- Malayalam ഭാര്യ #163
- Polish żona #537
- Romanian soția #2,316
- Russian жена #482
- Serbian supruga wife, female spouse #1,216
- Slovak manželka #778
- Slovenian žena #235
- Spanish esposa #363
- Swedish fru #264
- Tamil மனைவி #181
- Telugu భార్య #140
- Turkish karısı #1,096
- Ukrainian молода bride, newlywed wife #1,951
- Urdu بیوی #348
- Vietnamese vợ #397
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.