How to say “alive” 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 Albanian, where është is the 6th most used word.
- Albanian është to live, stay alive #6
- Arabic عاش to live, to be alive #1,670
- Armenian կենդանի alive, living, not dead #387
- Basque bizi #99
- Bengali জীবিত living, alive #406
- Bosnian živi live, alive #503
- Bulgarian жив alive, living #483
- Catalan viure to live, to be alive #430
- Chinese 活著 to be alive; to be living #2,191
- Croatian živi live, alive #529
- Czech naživu #817
- Danish leve to live, be alive #464
- English living To be alive; to have life #545
- Esperanto viva #726
- Estonian elus #323
- Finnish elää to live, be alive #537
- French vivante #2,252
- Georgian ცოცხალი alive, animate, brisk, live, lively, living,… #383
- German lebt to live, to be alive #723
- Greek ζωντανός alive, living #842
- Hebrew חי #452
- Hindi जीवित alive, living #604
- Icelandic lifandi alive, living #485
- Indonesian hidup to be alive; to have life #114
- Italian vivere to live; to be alive #534
- Korean 생애 a period when one is alive; a lifetime #1,750
- Latvian dzīvi living, alive; adverbial form of dzīvs #304
- Lithuanian gyvas #354
- Macedonian жив #343
- Malayalam ജീവൻ life; state of being alive #420
- Persian زنده #156
- Portuguese vida state of being alive #130
- Romanian viu #1,326
- Russian живой living, live, alive #2,304
- Serbian živi live, alive #458
- Slovak živý alive, living #963
- Slovenian živ #309
- Spanish vivir to live; to be alive #453
- Swedish lever to live, to be alive #435
- Ukrainian живий live, alive #754
- Urdu زندہ alive, living #220
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.