How to say “fish” in 45 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 Malay, where berikan is the 224th most used word.
- Afrikaans vis #754
- Albanian peshk #1,229
- Arabic سمك #1,379
- Basque arrain #627
- Bengali মাছ #608
- Bosnian riba #1,292
- Bulgarian риба #1,023
- Catalan peix #1,492
- Croatian riba #1,663
- Danish fisk #1,205
- Dutch vis to fish, to try to catch fish #1,446
- English fishing To hunt fish or other aquatic animals in a… #2,474
- Esperanto fiŝo #1,700
- Estonian kohas zander, the freshwater fish Sander lucioperca #736
- French poisson #1,506
- Galician peixe a fish #1,464
- Georgian თევზი #343
- German fisch #1,769
- Greek ψάρι #1,803
- Hebrew דג #1,236
- Hindi मछली #1,180
- Hungarian hal #1,438
- Icelandic fisk #1,281
- Indonesian berikan have a fish #258
- Italian pesce #1,557
- Korean 물고기 #2,374
- Latvian zivs #1,622
- Lithuanian žuvis #1,141
- Macedonian риба #872
- Malay berikan To contain fish #224
- Malayalam മത്സ്യം #1,220
- Norwegian fisk a fish #1,451
- Persian ماهی #1,627
- Polish ryby #2,387
- Portuguese peixe #1,503
- Serbian riba #1,292
- Slovak ryby #917
- Slovenian riba #867
- Spanish pescado dead fish intended for consumption; food fish #2,355
- Tagalog isda #587
- Tamil மீன் #1,042
- Telugu మార్పు a kind of fish #481
- Turkish balık #876
- Urdu مچھلی #629
- Vietnamese lờ kind of fish trap woven from bamboo #1,984
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.