How to say “grandfather” in 46 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 Vietnamese, where ông is the 29th most used word.
- Afrikaans oupa #240
- Albanian gjyshi #1,132
- Armenian պապ #1,510
- Basque aitona #522
- Bengali দাদা paternal grandfather #739
- Bosnian deda #1,241
- Bulgarian дядо grandfather, grandpa, grandpapa, granddad #579
- Catalan avi #1,119
- Chinese 祖父 paternal grandfather #1,395
- Croatian djed #1,306
- Czech děda #2,347
- Danish bedstefar #1,502
- English grandpa #1,525
- Esperanto avo #833
- Estonian vanaisa #794
- French grand-père #1,321
- Galician avó #1,085
- German großvater #1,697
- Greek παππού grandfather, grandad, grandpa #1,253
- Hebrew סבא #849
- Hindi दादा paternal grandfather #2,306
- Hungarian nagyapa #2,347
- Icelandic afi #615
- Indonesian kakek #980
- Italian nonno #1,127
- Korean 할아버지 grandfather; elderly male #545
- Latvian vectēvs #1,096
- Lithuanian senelis #670
- Macedonian дедо #460
- Malay atuk #1,509
- Malayalam മുത്തച്ഛൻ #1,453
- Norwegian bestefar a grandfather #1,390
- Persian پدربزرگ #1,975
- Polish dziadek #2,151
- Portuguese avô grandfather, male grandparent #1,136
- Russian дедушка #1,779
- Serbian deda #849
- Slovak dedko #1,195
- Slovenian ded #1,202
- Spanish abuelo #961
- Tagalog lolo #936
- Tamil தாத்தா grandfather, the father of one's parent #488
- Telugu తాత #923
- Turkish büyükbaba #2,175
- Urdu دادا paternal grandfather #1,081
- Vietnamese ông you, my grandfather #29
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.