How to say “east” in 30 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.
- شرق/ʃarq/ Arabic
- 동쪽[to̞ŋt͡ɕ͈o̞k̚] Korean
- מזרח/mizˈrɔːħ/ Hebrew
- արևելք/ɑɾeˈvelkʰ/ Armenian
- পূর্ব/puɾbo/ Bengali
- கிழக்கு/kɪɻɐkːɯ/ Tamil
“east” in French: e · Italian: est · Korean: 동쪽 · Arabic: شرق · Turkish: doğum
It is commonest in Turkish, where doğum is the 563rd most used word.
East in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans oos/ˈʊəs/ #1,181
- Arabic شرق/ʃarq/ east; Orient #1,874
- Armenian արևելք/ɑɾeˈvelkʰ/ #1,585
- Basque ekialde/ekialde/ #1,453
- Bengali পূর্ব/puɾbo/ #889
- Bulgarian изток[ˈistok] #1,761
- Catalan est[ˈest] #1,175
- Chinese 東西/tʊŋ⁵⁵ ɕi⁵⁵/ from east to west #300
- Danish øst[ˈøsd̥] east, eastwards #2,330
- English east/ɪjst/ Towards the east; eastwards #1,411
- Esperanto oriento/oriˈento/ #2,100
- Estonian ida/ˈid̥ɑ/ #1,732
- French e/ə/ abbreviation of est; east #2,211
- Hebrew מזרח/mizˈrɔːħ/ #2,139
- Icelandic austur[ˈœistʏr] east, eastward #1,309
- Indonesian timur/ˈtimur/ #1,011
- Italian est/ˈɛst/ #2,058
- Korean 동쪽[to̞ŋt͡ɕ͈o̞k̚] #1,359
- Latvian austrumu/ˈaustrumu/ #1,735
- Macedonian исток[ˈistɔk] #1,291
- Malay timur/ˈtimur/ #848
- Malayalam കിഴക്ക്/kiɻɐkkɨ/ east, the cardinal direction in which the… #882
- Norwegian øst/ˈœst/ #2,492
- Persian شرق[ʃæɹɢ̥] the east #1,264
- Romanian est/ˈest/ #1,312
- Tagalog silangan/siˈlaŋan/ #1,479
- Tamil கிழக்கு/kɪɻɐkːɯ/ #654
- Telugu తూర్పు/t̪uːɾpu/ the east #1,096
- Turkish doğum/doˈum/ #563
- Urdu مشرق/məʃ.ɾɪq/ #923
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) and Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.