How to say “beer” in 43 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 Slovenian, where pivo is the 417th most used word.
- Afrikaans bier #471
- Albanian birrë #999
- Arabic بيرة #1,554
- Basque garagardo #625
- Bengali বিয়ার #1,522
- Bosnian pivo #858
- Bulgarian бира beer to impart a bitter flavor #876
- Catalan cervesa #1,174
- Chinese 啤酒 #440
- Croatian pivo #906
- Czech pivo #1,045
- Danish øl #807
- Dutch bier #1,353
- Estonian õlut #1,047
- Finnish olutta beer, ale #2,282
- French bière #1,083
- Galician cervexa #1,111
- Georgian ლუდი #701
- German bier #987
- Hindi बियर #1,324
- Hungarian sört #1,554
- Indonesian bir #1,040
- Italian birra #1,100
- Korean 맥주 #710
- Latvian alu #1,022
- Lithuanian alus #2,048
- Macedonian пиво #703
- Malay bir #1,065
- Malayalam ബിയർ #1,302
- Norwegian øl #842
- Persian آبجو #978
- Polish piwo #1,378
- Portuguese cerveja #1,062
- Romanian bere #1,001
- Russian пиво #1,766
- Serbian pivo #836
- Slovak pivo #580
- Slovenian pivo #417
- Spanish cerveza #1,054
- Swedish öl a beer #901
- Turkish bira #798
- Ukrainian пиво #1,185
- Vietnamese bia #1,236
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.