How to say “father” in 53 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.
- padre/ˈpadɾe/ Spanish
- отец[ɐˈtʲet͡s] Russian
- والد/waː.lid/ Arabic
- 아버지[a̠bʌ̹d͡ʑi] Korean
- पिता/pɪ.t̪ɑː/ Hindi
- אבא/ˈʔab.bɔː/ Hebrew
“father” in Spanish: padre · French: père · German: vater · Italian: padre · Portuguese: pai · Korean: 아버지 · Russian: отец · Arabic: والد
It is commonest in Georgian, where მამა is the 17th most used word.
Father in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans pa/ˈpɑː/ dad, father #145
- Albanian babi/babi/ dad, father #182
- Arabic والد/waː.lid/ #756
- Armenian հայր/hɑjɾ/ #134
- Basque aita/ai̯ta/ #62
- Bengali বাবা/baba/ father, daddy, papa #76
- Bosnian otac/ǒtat͡s/ #231
- Bulgarian баща[bɐʃˈta] #133
- Catalan pare[ˈpa.ɾə] #107
- Chinese 父母/fu⁵¹ mu²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/ parents; mother and father; mum and dad #185
- Croatian otac/ǒtat͡s/ #242
- Czech otec[ˈotɛt͡s] #325
- Danish far/fɑː/ father, dad #105
- Dutch vader/ˈvaː.dər/ father, male parent #155
- English dad/dæd/ A father, a male parent #217
- Esperanto patro/ˈpatro/ #118
- Estonian isa/ˈisɑ/ #89
- Finnish isä/ˈisæ/ #132
- French père/pɛʁ/ #144
- Galician pai/ˈpaj/ #139
- Georgian მამა[mämä] #17
- German vater/ˈfaːtər/ #176
- Greek μπαμπά/baˈba/ dad, father #236
- Hebrew אבא/ˈʔab.bɔː/ #104
- Hindi पिता/pɪ.t̪ɑː/ #144
- Hungarian apa[ˈɒpɒ] #195
- Icelandic faðir[ˈfaːðɪr] #950
- Indonesian ayah/ˈajah/ #111
- Italian padre/ˈpa.dre/ #158
- Korean 아버지[a̠bʌ̹d͡ʑi] #213
- Latvian tēvs[ˈtǣːws] #194
- Lithuanian tėvas[¹ˈtʲeːʋɐs] #198
- Macedonian татко[ˈtatkɔ] #105
- Malay ayah/ˈajah/ A father #59
- Malayalam അച്ഛൻ/ɐt͡ʃt͡ʃ(ʰ)ɐn/ #223
- Norwegian faren/ˈfɑːɳ̩/ #241
- Persian پدر[pʰe.d̪ǽɹ] #151
- Polish ojciec/ˈɔj.t͡ɕɛt͡s/ #268
- Portuguese pai/ˈpaj/ #105
- Romanian tatăl[ˈta.təl] #229
- Russian отец[ɐˈtʲet͡s] #191
- Serbian otac/ǒtat͡s/ #222
- Slovak otec/ɔcet͡s/ #117
- Slovenian oče/ɔ̀ːt͡ʃɛ/ #102
- Spanish padre/ˈpadɾe/ #147
- Swedish pappa[²papːa] dad, father #130
- Tagalog tatay/ˈtataj/ #252
- Tamil என்னை/ɛnːɐɪ̯/ my father #21
- Telugu తండ్రి/t̪aɳɖɾi/ #101
- Turkish baba/baˈba/ #153
- Ukrainian батько[ˈbatʲkɔ] #280
- Urdu والد/ʋɑː.lɪd̪/ #127
- Vietnamese bố[ʔɓo˧˦] I/me, your father #116
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.