How to say “animal” in 44 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.
- animales/ˌaniˈmales/ Spanish
- حيوان/ħa.ja.waːn/ Arabic
- जानवर/d͡ʒɑːn.ʋəɾ/ Hindi
- חיה/ħajˈjaː/ Hebrew
- প্রাণী/pɾani/ Bengali
“animal” in Spanish: animales · Italian: animali · Arabic: حيوان · Hindi: जानवर · Turkish: hayvan
It is commonest in Tagalog, where hayop is the 243rd most used word.
Animal in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans diere/ˈdiːrə/ #641
- Albanian kafshë/ˈkäfʃə/ #807
- Arabic حيوان/ħa.ja.waːn/ animal, beast #1,020
- Basque animalia/animalia/ #576
- Bengali প্রাণী/pɾani/ #838
- Bosnian životinja/ʒiʋǒtiɲa/ #1,283
- Bulgarian животно[ʒiˈvɔtno] #1,441
- Catalan animals[ə.niˈmals] #1,243
- Chinese 畜生/ʈ͡ʂʰu⁵¹ ʂɤŋ¹/ domestic animal; livestock; brute #1,648
- Croatian životinja/ʒiʋǒtiɲa/ #1,314
- Czech zvíře[ˈzviːr̝ɛ] animal, beast #1,558
- Danish dyr/dyːˀɐ̯/ animal, beast #744
- Dutch dieren/ˈdiː.rə(n)/ #1,103
- English he[hi(ː)] A person who identifies as male, or animal… #18
- Esperanto bestoj/ˈbestoi̯/ #872
- Estonian loom/ˈloːm/ #1,346
- French peau/po/ skin of a person or animal #1,061
- Galician animais/aniˈmajs/ #531
- Georgian ცხოველები[t͡sʰχovelebi] beastly animal #947
- German stimmen/ˈʃtɪmən/ voice, call of an animal #1,425
- Hebrew חיה/ħajˈjaː/ #733
- Hindi जानवर/d͡ʒɑːn.ʋəɾ/ #1,164
- Indonesian hewan/ˈhewan/ #844
- Italian animali/a.niˈma.li/ #1,376
- Korean 새끼[sʰɛk͈i] young animal #482
- Latvian zvēru/z-ˈʋæːru/ beast, animal #714
- Lithuanian gyvūnų[ɡʲiː²ˈʋuːnuː] #1,344
- Macedonian животно[ˈʒivɔtnɔ] #1,011
- Malay binatang/biˈnataŋ/ #797
- Malayalam മീൻ/miːn/ an aquatic animal; commonly just fish #508
- Norwegian dyr/dʏːr/ an animal #834
- Persian قربانی[qoɹ.bɒː.níː] sacrifice; sacrificial animal or victim #1,436
- Polish zwierzęta/zvjɛˈʐɛn.ta/ #2,354
- Serbian životinja/ʒiʋǒtiɲa/ #1,199
- Slovak zviera/ˈzvi̯ɛra/ animal, beast #784
- Slovenian žival/ʒiʋáːʋ/ #628
- Spanish animales/ˌaniˈmales/ #1,292
- Swedish käften/ˈɕɛftɛn/ a jaw or mouth of an animal #695
- Tagalog hayop/ˈhajop/ #243
- Tamil பூனை/puːnɐɪ̯/ cat, any animal of the family Felidae #886
- Telugu జంతువులు/ˈɟantuˌʋulu/ beast, brute, animal #480
- Turkish hayvan/hajˈvan/ #936
- Urdu جانور/d͡ʒɑːn.ʋəɾ/ animal, beast #858
- Vietnamese thịt[tʰit̚˧˨ʔ] human or animal flesh, especially meat, but… #782
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.