How to say “dinner” in 32 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.
- അത്താഴം/ɐt̪t̪aːɻɐm/ Malayalam
- обід[oˈbʲid] Ukrainian
- شام[ʃɒːm] Persian
“dinner” in Italian: cena · Portuguese: jantar
It is commonest in Persian, where شام is the 441st most used word.
Dinner in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans aandete/ˈɑːntˌɪə̯.tə/ supper, dinner, evening meal #1,100
- Albanian darkë[ˈdaɾkə] supper, dinner #641
- Arabic عشاء/ʕa.ʃaːʔ/ supper, dinner #965
- Basque afaldu/afaldu/ to have dinner #857
- Bosnian ručak/rǔːt͡ʃak/ lunch, dinner, usually the main meal of the… #991
- Bulgarian вечеря[vɛˈt͡ʃɛrʲɐ] dinner, supper #541
- Catalan sopar[suˈpa] to dine, have dinner #523
- Chinese 晚餐/wän²¹⁴⁻²¹ t͡sʰän⁵⁵/ supper; dinner #438
- Croatian ručak/rǔːt͡ʃak/ lunch, dinner, usually the main meal of the… #916
- Czech večeři[ˈvɛt͡ʃɛr̝ɪ] dinner, supper, evening meal #667
- Dutch diner/diˈneː/ dinner, supper #1,865
- Esperanto vespermanĝo/vesperˈmand͡ʒo/ dinner, supper, evening meal #1,475
- Estonian õhtusöök/ˈɤhtuˌsøːk/ #1,230
- Galician xantar/ʃanˈtaɾ/ #1,730
- German tisch/tɪʃ/ dining table, dinner table #906
- Hungarian vacsora[ˈvɒt͡ʃorɒ] dinner, supper #1,498
- Italian cena/ˈt͡ʃe.na/ #585
- Latvian vakariņas[vakaɾiɲas] #930
- Lithuanian vakarienė[ʋɐkɐ²ˈrʲiɛnʲeː] #1,142
- Macedonian вечера[ˈvɛt͡ʃɛɾa] #461
- Malayalam അത്താഴം/ɐt̪t̪aːɻɐm/ dinner, supper, food at night #600
- Persian شام[ʃɒːm] dinner, supper #441
- Polish obiad/ˈɔ.bjat/ dinner, lunch #1,195
- Portuguese jantar/ʒɐ̃ˈta(ʁ)/ #508
- Romanian cina[t͡ʃiˈna] dinner, supper #841
- Russian ужин[ˈuʐɨn] supper, late dinner #877
- Serbian ručak/rǔːt͡ʃak/ lunch, dinner, usually the main meal of the… #871
- Slovak večera/vet͡ʃera/ #699
- Slovenian večerja/ʋɛt͡ʃéːrja/ #623
- Tagalog hapunan/haˈpunan/ dinner; supper #1,402
- Ukrainian обід[oˈbʲid] dinner, lunch #1,344
- Vietnamese tiệc[tiək̚˧˨ʔ] banquet; party; dinner #729
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 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.