How to say “east” in 30 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 Chinese, where 東西 is the 300th most used word.
- Afrikaans oos #1,181
- Arabic شرق east; Orient #1,874
- Armenian արևելք #1,585
- Basque ekialde #1,453
- Bengali পূর্ব #889
- Bulgarian изток #1,761
- Catalan est #1,175
- Chinese 東西 from east to west #300
- Danish øst east, eastwards #2,330
- English east Towards the east; eastwards #1,411
- Esperanto oriento #2,100
- Estonian ida #1,732
- French e abbreviation of est; east #2,211
- Hebrew מזרח #2,139
- Icelandic austur east, eastward #1,309
- Indonesian timur #1,011
- Italian est #2,058
- Korean 동쪽 #1,359
- Latvian austrumu #1,735
- Macedonian исток #1,291
- Malay timur #848
- Malayalam കിഴക്ക് east, the cardinal direction in which the… #882
- Norwegian øst #2,492
- Persian شرق the east #1,264
- Romanian est #1,312
- Tagalog silangan #1,479
- Tamil கிழக்கு #654
- Telugu తూర్పు the east #1,096
- Turkish doğum #563
- Urdu مشرق #923
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.