How to say “alive” in 41 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.
- जीवित/d͡ʒiː.ʋɪt̪/ Hindi
- ζωντανός/zon.daˈnos/ Greek
- חי/ˈħajj/ Hebrew
- ცოცხალი[t͡sʰo̞t͡sʰχäli] Georgian
- կենդանի/kentʰɑˈni/ Armenian
- زنده[zen̪.d̪é] Persian
“alive” in French: vivante · Hindi: जीवित · Greek: ζωντανός
It is commonest in Basque, where bizi is the 99th most used word.
Alive in other languages, A to Z
- Albanian është/ˈəʃtə/ to live, stay alive #6
- Arabic عاش/ʕaː.ʃa/ to live, to be alive #1,670
- Armenian կենդանի/kentʰɑˈni/ alive, living, not dead #387
- Basque bizi/bis̻i/ #99
- Bengali জীবিত/d͡ʒibit̪o/ living, alive #406
- Bosnian živi/ˈʒivɪ/ live, alive #503
- Bulgarian жив[ʒif] alive, living #483
- Catalan viure[ˈbiw.ɾə] to live, to be alive #430
- Chinese 活著/xu̯ɔ³⁵ ɖ͡ʐ̥ə³/ to be alive; to be living #2,191
- Croatian živi/ˈʒivɪ/ live, alive #529
- Czech naživu[ˈnaʒɪvu] #817
- Danish leve[ˈleːʋə] to live, be alive #464
- English living/ˈlɪvɪŋ/ To be alive; to have life #545
- Esperanto viva/ˈviva/ #726
- Estonian elus/ˈelus/ #323
- Finnish elää/ˈelæːˣ/ to live, be alive #537
- French vivante/viˈvɑ̃t/ #2,252
- Georgian ცოცხალი[t͡sʰo̞t͡sʰχäli] alive, animate, brisk, live, lively, living,… #383
- German lebt/leːpt/ to live, to be alive #723
- Greek ζωντανός/zon.daˈnos/ alive, living #842
- Hebrew חי/ˈħajj/ #452
- Hindi जीवित/d͡ʒiː.ʋɪt̪/ alive, living #604
- Icelandic lifandi[ˈlɪːvantɪ] alive, living #485
- Indonesian hidup/ˈhidup/ to be alive; to have life #114
- Italian vivere/ˈvi.ve.re/ to live; to be alive #534
- Korean 생애[sʰɛŋɛ] a period when one is alive; a lifetime #1,750
- Latvian dzīvi/ˈdziːʋi/ living, alive; adverbial form of dzīvs #304
- Lithuanian gyvas[¹ˈɡʲiːʋɐs] #354
- Macedonian жив[ʒif] #343
- Malayalam ജീവൻ/d͡ʒiːʋɐn/ life; state of being alive #420
- Persian زنده[zen̪.d̪é] #156
- Portuguese vida/ˈvi.dɐ/ state of being alive #130
- Romanian viu/viw/ #1,326
- Russian живой[ʐɨˈvoj] living, live, alive #2,304
- Serbian živi/ˈʒivɪ/ live, alive #458
- Slovak živý/ʒiviː/ alive, living #963
- Slovenian živ/ʒíːʋ/ #309
- Spanish vivir/biˈbiɾ/ to live; to be alive #453
- Swedish lever/ˈlɛvɛr/ to live, to be alive #435
- Ukrainian живий[ʒeˈʋɪi̯] live, alive #754
- Urdu زندہ/zɪn.d̪ɑ(ː)/ alive, living #220
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.