How to say “fire” in 53 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 Estonian, where tule is the 84th most used word.
- Afrikaans vuur fire, flame #325
- Albanian zjarr #537
- Arabic نار #1,061
- Armenian բոց flames, blaze, fire #926
- Basque su #579
- Bengali আগুন #468
- Bosnian vatra #1,595
- Bulgarian огън #898
- Catalan foc #464
- Chinese 開槍 to open fire; to shoot; to discharge a firearm #1,998
- Croatian vatra #1,604
- Czech oheň #1,282
- Danish ild #1,085
- Dutch schiet to shoot, fire #486
- English shot To fire #476
- Esperanto fajro #606
- Estonian tule #84
- Finnish tulin #372
- French feu #439
- Galician lume flame, fire #535
- Georgian ცეცხლი #606
- German feuer to fire #682
- Greek φωτιά #659
- Hebrew פיטר to fire, lay off, terminate, terminate the… #562
- Hindi आग fire, flame #331
- Hungarian tűz #1,004
- Icelandic brenna to burn, to be on fire #933
- Indonesian api #465
- Italian fuoco #606
- Korean 불 fire; flame #548
- Latvian uguni #741
- Lithuanian ugnis #682
- Macedonian оган #582
- Malay api #358
- Malayalam തീ #364
- Norwegian ild #1,601
- Persian آتش #475
- Polish ogień #1,268
- Portuguese disparar to shoot, to fire #1,472
- Romanian foc fire, blaze #601
- Russian огонь #1,134
- Serbian vatra #1,574
- Slovak oheň #688
- Slovenian ogenj #378
- Spanish fuego #598
- Swedish sköt to shoot a weapon, to fire a weapon #642
- Tagalog apoy #496
- Tamil தீ #247
- Telugu అగ్ని #204
- Turkish ateş #378
- Ukrainian вогонь #670
- Urdu آگ #415
- Vietnamese bắn to fire; to shoot #305
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.