How to say “hey” in 34 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 Arabic, where يا is the 11th most used word.
- Albanian ej a call for attention. hey!, oi! #417
- Arabic يا O; hey; you; vocative particle preceding a… #11
- Basque aizu hey, listen #148
- Bengali আরে hello, hey, yo, um, uh #160
- Bosnian e #379
- Bulgarian ей hey! #214
- Catalan ei #197
- Croatian e #486
- Czech hej hey, hi #128
- Dutch hé #213
- English ho halloo; hey; a call to excite attention, or… #1,595
- Esperanto hej #259
- French hein huh, hey, eh #272
- Greek ρε hey, eh, dude #457
- Hindi अरे hey, oh, arrey #114
- Hungarian hé #75
- Icelandic heyrðu hey! oy! #722
- Italian ehi hey! #88
- Korean 야 #135
- Latvian hei #341
- Macedonian еј #84
- Malay wei yo, hey – exclamation to get attention #2,303
- Polish hej #106
- Portuguese oi #1,580
- Romanian hei #130
- Russian эй hey! #108
- Serbian e #484
- Spanish hola hello, hi, hey #88
- Swedish tja hey, yo #595
- Tagalog oy an informal greeting: hey! #1,531
- Turkish yahu hey, over here #1,478
- Ukrainian гей hey! #182
- Urdu ارے hey, ho, oh, whew, yo #96
- Vietnamese ơi vocative particle; oh, hey #231
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.