How to say “beer” in 43 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.
- cerveza/θeɾˈbeθa/ Spanish
- пиво[ˈpʲivə] Russian
- بيرة/biː.ra/ Arabic
- 啤酒/pʰi³⁵ t͡ɕi̯oʊ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/ Chinese
- 맥주[mɛk̚t͡ɕ͈u] Korean
- बियर/bɪjəɾ/ Hindi
“beer” in Spanish: cerveza · French: bière · German: bier · Italian: birra · Portuguese: cerveja · Chinese: 啤酒 · Korean: 맥주 · Russian: пиво
It is commonest in Slovenian, where pivo is the 417th most used word.
Beer in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans bier/bir/ #471
- Albanian birrë/birə/ #999
- Arabic بيرة/biː.ra/ #1,554
- Basque garagardo/ɡaɾaɡardo/ #625
- Bengali বিয়ার/bijaɾ/ #1,522
- Bosnian pivo/pîːʋo/ #858
- Bulgarian бира[ˈbirɐ] beer to impart a bitter flavor #876
- Catalan cervesa[sərˈbɛ.zə] #1,174
- Chinese 啤酒/pʰi³⁵ t͡ɕi̯oʊ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/ #440
- Croatian pivo/pîːʋo/ #906
- Czech pivo[ˈpɪvo] #1,045
- Danish øl/øl/ #807
- Dutch bier/bir/ #1,353
- Estonian õlut/ˈɤlut/ #1,047
- Finnish olutta/ˈolutːa/ beer, ale #2,282
- French bière/bjɛʁ/ #1,083
- Galician cervexa/θeɾˈbeʃa/ #1,111
- Georgian ლუდი[ɫudi] #701
- German bier/biːr/ #987
- Hindi बियर/bɪjəɾ/ #1,324
- Hungarian sört[ˈʃørt] #1,554
- Indonesian bir[ˈbɪr] #1,040
- Italian birra/ˈbir.ra/ #1,100
- Korean 맥주[mɛk̚t͡ɕ͈u] #710
- Latvian alu/ˈalu/ #1,022
- Lithuanian alus[ɐˈlʊs] #2,048
- Macedonian пиво[ˈpivɔ] #703
- Malay bir/ˈbir/ #1,065
- Malayalam ബിയർ/bijɐr/ #1,302
- Norwegian øl/œl/ #842
- Persian آبجو[ʔɒːb.d͡ʒów] #978
- Polish piwo/ˈpi.vɔ/ #1,378
- Portuguese cerveja/seʁˈve.ʒɐ/ #1,062
- Romanian bere/ˈbe.re/ #1,001
- Russian пиво[ˈpʲivə] #1,766
- Serbian pivo/pîːʋo/ #836
- Slovak pivo/pivɔ/ #580
- Slovenian pivo/pìːʋɔ/ #417
- Spanish cerveza/θeɾˈbeθa/ #1,054
- Swedish öl/øːl/ a beer #901
- Turkish bira[ˈbi.ɾɑ] #798
- Ukrainian пиво[ˈpɪwɔ] #1,185
- Vietnamese bia[ʔɓiə˧˧] #1,236
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.