How to say “fish” in 45 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.
- سمك/sa.mak/ Arabic
- 물고기[muɭk͈o̞ɡi] Korean
- मछली/mət͡ʃʰ.liː/ Hindi
- ψάρι/ˈpsa.ɾi/ Greek
- דג/daːɡ/ Hebrew
- თევზი[tʰe̞vzi] Georgian
“fish” in French: poisson · German: fisch · Italian: pesce · Portuguese: peixe · Korean: 물고기 · Arabic: سمك · Hindi: मछली · Turkish: balık
It is commonest in Georgian, where თევზი is the 343rd most used word.
Fish in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans vis/fəs/ #754
- Albanian peshk[pɛʃk] #1,229
- Arabic سمك/sa.mak/ #1,379
- Basque arrain/arai̯n/ #627
- Bengali মাছ/mat͡ʃʰ/ #608
- Bosnian riba/rîba/ #1,292
- Bulgarian риба[ˈribɐ] #1,023
- Catalan peix[ˈpeʃ] #1,492
- Croatian riba/rîba/ #1,663
- Danish fisk/ˈfesk/ #1,205
- Dutch vis/vɪs/ to fish, to try to catch fish #1,446
- English fishing/ˈfɪʃɪŋ/ To hunt fish or other aquatic animals in a… #2,474
- Esperanto fiŝo/ˈfiʃo/ #1,700
- Estonian kohas/ˈkohɑs/ zander, the freshwater fish Sander lucioperca #736
- French poisson/pwa.sɔ̃/ #1,506
- Galician peixe/ˈpejʃe/ a fish #1,464
- Georgian თევზი[tʰe̞vzi] #343
- German fisch/fɪʃ/ #1,769
- Greek ψάρι/ˈpsa.ɾi/ #1,803
- Hebrew דג/daːɡ/ #1,236
- Hindi मछली/mət͡ʃʰ.liː/ #1,180
- Hungarian hal[ˈhɒl] #1,438
- Icelandic fisk/fɪsk/ #1,281
- Indonesian berikan/bərˈʔikan/ have a fish #258
- Italian pesce/ˈpeʃ.ʃe/ #1,557
- Korean 물고기[muɭk͈o̞ɡi] #2,374
- Latvian zivs[ziws] #1,622
- Lithuanian žuvis[ʒʊˈʋʲɪs] #1,141
- Macedonian риба[ˈriba] #872
- Malay berikan[bə.ri.kan] To contain fish #224
- Malayalam മത്സ്യം/mɐt̪sjɐm/ #1,220
- Norwegian fisk/fɪsk/ a fish #1,451
- Persian ماهی[mɒː.ɦíː] #1,627
- Polish ryby/ˈrɘ.bɘ/ #2,387
- Portuguese peixe/ˈpe(j).ʃi/ #1,503
- Serbian riba/rîba/ #1,292
- Slovak ryby/ribi/ #917
- Slovenian riba/rìːba/ #867
- Spanish pescado/pesˈkado/ dead fish intended for consumption; food fish #2,355
- Tagalog isda/ʔisˈdaʔ/ #587
- Tamil மீன்/miːn/ #1,042
- Telugu మార్పు/maːɾpu/ a kind of fish #481
- Turkish balık/baˈɫɯk/ #876
- Urdu مچھلی/mət͡ʃʰ.liː/ #629
- Vietnamese lờ[ləː˨˩] kind of fish trap woven from bamboo #1,984
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.