How to say “animal” in 44 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 English, where he is the 18th most used word.
- Afrikaans diere #641
- Albanian kafshë #807
- Arabic حيوان animal, beast #1,020
- Basque animalia #576
- Bengali প্রাণী #838
- Bosnian životinja #1,283
- Bulgarian животно #1,441
- Catalan animals #1,243
- Chinese 畜生 domestic animal; livestock; brute #1,648
- Croatian životinja #1,314
- Czech zvíře animal, beast #1,558
- Danish dyr animal, beast #744
- Dutch dieren #1,103
- English he A person who identifies as male, or animal… #18
- Esperanto bestoj #872
- Estonian loom #1,346
- French peau skin of a person or animal #1,061
- Galician animais #531
- Georgian ცხოველები beastly animal #947
- German stimmen voice, call of an animal #1,425
- Hebrew חיה #733
- Hindi जानवर #1,164
- Indonesian hewan #844
- Italian animali #1,376
- Korean 새끼 young animal #482
- Latvian zvēru beast, animal #714
- Lithuanian gyvūnų #1,344
- Macedonian животно #1,011
- Malay binatang #797
- Malayalam മീൻ an aquatic animal; commonly just fish #508
- Norwegian dyr an animal #834
- Persian قربانی sacrifice; sacrificial animal or victim #1,436
- Polish zwierzęta #2,354
- Serbian životinja #1,199
- Slovak zviera animal, beast #784
- Slovenian žival #628
- Spanish animales #1,292
- Swedish käften a jaw or mouth of an animal #695
- Tagalog hayop #243
- Tamil பூனை cat, any animal of the family Felidae #886
- Telugu జంతువులు beast, brute, animal #480
- Turkish hayvan #936
- Urdu جانور animal, beast #858
- Vietnamese thịt human or animal flesh, especially meat, but… #782
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.