How to say “eat” in 50 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.
- comer/koˈmeɾ/ Spanish
- ешь[jeʂ] Russian
- أكل/ʔa.ka.la/ Arabic
- 먹기[mʌ̹k̚k͈i] Korean
- खाता/kʰɑː.t̪ɑː/ Hindi
- אכל/ʔaˈkʰal/ Hebrew
“eat” in Spanish: comer · French: manger · German: gegessen · Italian: mangiare · Korean: 먹기 · Russian: ешь · Arabic: أكل · Hindi: खाता
It is commonest in Vietnamese, where ăn is the 156th most used word.
Eat in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans eet/ɪət/ to eat #188
- Albanian ha/ha/ to eat #399
- Arabic أكل/ʔa.ka.la/ to eat, to consume #800
- Armenian կեր/keɾ/ to eat #1,093
- Bengali খাওয়া/kʰao̯a/ to eat #1,461
- Bosnian jeli/ˈjelɪ/ to eat, consume #908
- Bulgarian яде[jɐˈdɛ] to eat, to consume #1,230
- Catalan menjar[məɲˈʒa] to eat something solid #301
- Chinese 吃掉/ʈ͡ʂʰɻ̩⁵⁵ ti̯ɑʊ̯⁵¹/ to eat up; to consume #983
- Croatian jesti/jêsti/ to eat, consume #781
- Czech jíst[ˈjiːst] to eat #937
- Danish sulten[ˈsuld̥ən] hungry, wanting to eat #889
- Dutch eten/ˈeː.tə(n)/ to eat #273
- English feed/fiːd/ To give food to eat #1,537
- Esperanto manĝi/ˈmand͡ʒi/ to eat #327
- Estonian süüa/syːɑ̯/ to eat #495
- Finnish syö/ˈsyø̯/ to eat #857
- French manger/mɑ̃.ʒe/ to eat #454
- Galician comer/koˈmeɾ/ to eat #365
- Georgian ჭამ[t͡ʃʼäm] to eat #1,135
- German gegessen/ɡəˈɡɛsən/ to eat #1,345
- Hebrew אכל/ʔaˈkʰal/ to eat #1,842
- Hindi खाता/kʰɑː.t̪ɑː/ to eat, consume #557
- Hungarian enni[ˈɛnːi] to eat #1,024
- Icelandic éta[ˈjɛːta] to eat #756
- Indonesian makan/ˈmakan/ to eat #163
- Italian mangiare/manˈd͡ʒa.re/ to eat #574
- Korean 먹기[mʌ̹k̚k͈i] to eat, drink, have, consume #1,607
- Latvian ēst[ɛ̂ːst] to eat #848
- Lithuanian valgyti[¹ˈʋɑˑlʲɡʲiːtʲɪ] to eat #628
- Macedonian јадење[ˈjadɛɲɛ] to eat #943
- Malay makan/ˈmakan/ to eat #176
- Malayalam തിന്നു/t̪in̪n̪u/ to eat #686
- Norwegian spise/ˈspiːsə/ to eat #427
- Persian خورد[xoɹd̪̥] to eat #592
- Polish zjeść/ˈzjɛɕt͡ɕ/ to eat; to eat up #1,214
- Romanian mâncat[mɨnˈkat] to eat #965
- Russian ешь[jeʂ] to eat #1,895
- Serbian jeli/ˈjelɪ/ to eat, consume #1,128
- Slovak jedlo/jedlɔ/ to eat #375
- Slovenian jesti/jèːsti/ to eat #508
- Spanish comer/koˈmeɾ/ to eat #486
- Swedish äta/²ɛːta/ to eat #437
- Tagalog kumain/kuˈmaʔin/ to eat #341
- Tamil கடி/kɐɖiː/ to bite, bite off; to bite and eat; to crop,… #1,349
- Telugu కుడుచు/kuɖut͡ɕu/ to eat #725
- Turkish yer/ˈjeɾ/ to eat #198
- Ukrainian їсти[ˈjiste] to eat #723
- Urdu کھانا/kʰɑː.nɑː/ to eat #209
- Vietnamese ăn[ʔan˧˧] to eat #156
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.