How to say “fire” 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.
- fuego/ˈfweɡo/ Spanish
- огонь[ɐˈɡonʲ] Russian
- نار/naːr/ Arabic
- 불[puɭ] Korean
- आग/ɑːɡ/ Hindi
- φωτιά/foˈtça/ Greek
“fire” in Spanish: fuego · French: feu · German: feuer · Italian: fuoco · Korean: 불 · Russian: огонь · Arabic: نار · Hindi: आग
It is commonest in Estonian, where tule is the 84th most used word.
Fire in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans vuur/fyr/ fire, flame #325
- Albanian zjarr/zjar/ #537
- Arabic نار/naːr/ #1,061
- Armenian բոց/bot͡sʰ/ flames, blaze, fire #926
- Basque su/s̺u/ #579
- Bengali আগুন/aɡun/ #468
- Bosnian vatra/ʋâtra/ #1,595
- Bulgarian огън[ˈɔɡɐn] #898
- Catalan foc[ˈfɔk] #464
- Chinese 開槍/kʰaɪ̯⁵⁵ t͡ɕʰi̯ɑŋ⁵⁵/ to open fire; to shoot; to discharge a firearm #1,998
- Croatian vatra/ʋâtra/ #1,604
- Czech oheň[ˈoɦɛɲ] #1,282
- Danish ild/ilˀ/ #1,085
- Dutch schiet/ˈsxit/ to shoot, fire #486
- English shot/ʃɑt/ To fire #476
- Esperanto fajro/ˈfai̯ro/ #606
- Estonian tule/ˈtule/ #84
- Finnish tulin/ˈtulɪn/ #372
- French feu/fø/ #439
- Galician lume/ˈlume/ flame, fire #535
- Georgian ცეცხლი[t͡sʰe̞t͡sʰχli] #606
- German feuer/ˈfɔʏ̯ər/ to fire #682
- Greek φωτιά/foˈtça/ #659
- Hebrew פיטר/piˈteʁ/ to fire, lay off, terminate, terminate the… #562
- Hindi आग/ɑːɡ/ fire, flame #331
- Hungarian tűz[ˈtyːz] #1,004
- Icelandic brenna[ˈprɛn(ː)a] to burn, to be on fire #933
- Indonesian api/ˈapi/ #465
- Italian fuoco/ˈfwɔ.ko/ #606
- Korean 불[puɭ] fire; flame #548
- Latvian uguni/ˈuɡuni/ #741
- Lithuanian ugnis[ʊˈɡnʲɪs] #682
- Macedonian оган[ˈɔɡan] #582
- Malay api/ˈapi/ #358
- Malayalam തീ/t̪iː/ #364
- Norwegian ild/ɪl/ #1,601
- Persian آتش[ʔɒː.t̪ʰǽʃ] #475
- Polish ogień/ˈɔ.ɡjɛɲ/ #1,268
- Portuguese disparar/d͡ʒis.paˈɾa(ʁ)/ to shoot, to fire #1,472
- Romanian foc/fok/ fire, blaze #601
- Russian огонь[ɐˈɡonʲ] #1,134
- Serbian vatra/ʋâtra/ #1,574
- Slovak oheň/ɔɦeɲ/ #688
- Slovenian ogenj/ɔ̀ːɡən/ #378
- Spanish fuego/ˈfweɡo/ #598
- Swedish sköt/ˈɧøːt/ to shoot a weapon, to fire a weapon #642
- Tagalog apoy/ʔaˈpoj/ #496
- Tamil தீ/t̪iː/ #247
- Telugu అగ్ని/aɡni/ #204
- Turkish ateş/aˈteʃ/ #378
- Ukrainian вогонь[wɔˈɦɔnʲ] #670
- Urdu آگ/ɑːɡ/ #415
- Vietnamese bắn[ʔɓan˧˦] to fire; to shoot #305
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.