How to say “work” 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.
- trabajo/tɾaˈbaxo/ Spanish
- работа[raˈbotə] Russian
- عمل/ʕa.mi.la/ Arabic
- 工作/kʊŋ⁵⁵ t͡su̯ɔ⁵¹/ Chinese
- 작업[t͡ɕa̠ɡʌ̹p̚] Korean
- काम/kɑːm/ Hindi
“work” in Spanish: trabajo · French: travail · German: arbeiten · Italian: lavoro · Portuguese: trabalho · Chinese: 工作 · Korean: 작업 · Russian: работа
It is commonest in Chinese, where 工作 is the 21st most used word.
Work in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans werk/ʋɛːrk/ #93
- Albanian punë/ˈpunə/ work; labour; job #137
- Arabic عمل/ʕa.mi.la/ to work, perform #138
- Armenian գործ/ɡoɾt͡s/ #283
- Basque lan/lan/ work, task #87
- Bengali কাজ/kad͡ʒ/ labor, effort, work #51
- Bosnian radiš/ˈradɪʃ/ to work #165
- Bulgarian работа[ˈrabotɐ] #115
- Catalan feina[ˈfɛj.nə] work, job #218
- Chinese 工作/kʊŋ⁵⁵ t͡su̯ɔ⁵¹/ to work #21
- Croatian radiš/ˈradɪʃ/ to work #175
- Czech práci[ˈpraːt͡sɪ] #218
- Danish arbejde/ˈarˌbajdə/ #195
- Dutch werk/ʋɛrk/ to work, labour #178
- English rest/ɹɛst/ Relief from work or activity by sleeping;… #446
- Esperanto laboro/laˈboro/ job, work #301
- Estonian töö/ˈtøː/ #258
- Finnish töitä/ˈtøi̯tæ/ work, toil, effort, labour #406
- French travail/tʁa.vaj/ work; labor #239
- Galician traballo/tɾaˈbaɟo/ to work #117
- Georgian მუშაობს[muʃäo̞bs] to work #589
- German arbeiten/ˈaʁbaɪ̯tən/ to work #414
- Greek δουλειά/ðuˈʎa/ employment, work, job #115
- Hindi काम/kɑːm/ work, task, labour #81
- Hungarian munka[ˈmuŋkɒ] work, job #425
- Icelandic starf[ˈstarv] work, job #459
- Indonesian bekerja[bə.kərˈd͡ʒa] to work, to labor/labour #168
- Italian lavoro/laˈvo.ro/ to work; to labor #149
- Korean 작업[t͡ɕa̠ɡʌ̹p̚] work, working #1,011
- Latvian darbu/ˈdarbu/ work, job, business #253
- Lithuanian darbas[¹ˈdɑˑrbɐs] work, job #248
- Macedonian работа[ˈrabɔta] work, labor #89
- Malay kerja/kərˈd͡ʒa/ work; occupation #191
- Malayalam പണി/pɐɳi/ work; job; occupation #137
- Norwegian jobber/ˈjɔbər/ job, work, employment #298
- Persian شغل[ʃoɢl̥] job, work, employment, occupation #657
- Polish pracy/ˈpra.t͡sɘ/ #243
- Portuguese trabalho/tɾaˈba.ʎu/ to work #161
- Romanian treaba/ˈtreaba/ #309
- Russian работа[raˈbotə] #365
- Serbian radiš/ˈradɪʃ/ to work #164
- Slovak prácu/praːt͡su/ #219
- Slovenian delo/dèːlɔ/ work, labour #146
- Spanish trabajo/tɾaˈbaxo/ to work #142
- Swedish göra/²ɡœːra/ work, task #61
- Tagalog trabaho/tɾaˈbaho/ work; job; labor #169
- Tamil வேலை/ʋeːlɐɪ̯/ job, work, occupation #52
- Telugu పని/pani/ #56
- Turkish iş/iʃ/ work, task, deed #139
- Ukrainian робота[rɔˈbɔtɐ] #453
- Urdu کام/kɑːm/ task, action, work #65
- Vietnamese việc[viək̚˧˨ʔ] job, work, business #74
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.