How to say “hey” in 34 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.
- 야[ja̠(ː)] Korean
- अरे/ə.ɾeː/ Hindi
- ρε/ɾe/ Greek
- ارے/ə.ɾeː/ Urdu
“hey” in Portuguese: oi · Korean: 야 · Hindi: अरे · Turkish: yahu · Greek: ρε
It is commonest in Hungarian, where hé is the 75th most used word.
Hey in other languages, A to Z
- Albanian ej/ɛj/ a call for attention. hey!, oi! #417
- Arabic يا/jaː/ O; hey; you; vocative particle preceding a… #11
- Basque aizu/ai̯s̻u/ hey, listen #148
- Bengali আরে/aɾe/ hello, hey, yo, um, uh #160
- Bosnian e/ˈɛ/ #379
- Bulgarian ей[ɛj] hey! #214
- Catalan ei[ˈej] #197
- Croatian e/ˈɛ/ #486
- Czech hej[ˈɦɛj] hey, hi #128
- Dutch hé/ɦeː/ #213
- English ho/hoʊ/ halloo; hey; a call to excite attention, or… #1,595
- Esperanto hej/hei̯/ #259
- French hein/ɛ̃/ huh, hey, eh #272
- Greek ρε/ɾe/ hey, eh, dude #457
- Hindi अरे/ə.ɾeː/ hey, oh, arrey #114
- Hungarian hé[ˈheː] #75
- Icelandic heyrðu/ˈheirðʏ/ hey! oy! #722
- Italian ehi/ˈej/ hey! #88
- Korean 야[ja̠(ː)] #135
- Latvian hei/ˈhei/ #341
- Macedonian еј[ɛj] #84
- Malay wei/wəˈi/ yo, hey – exclamation to get attention #2,303
- Polish hej/ˈxɛj/ #106
- Portuguese oi/ˈoj/ #1,580
- Romanian hei/hej/ #130
- Russian эй[ɛj] hey! #108
- Serbian e/ˈɛ/ #484
- Spanish hola/ˈola/ hello, hi, hey #88
- Swedish tja/ɕa/ hey, yo #595
- Tagalog oy/ˈʔoj/ an informal greeting: hey! #1,531
- Turkish yahu/ˈjaːhu/ hey, over here #1,478
- Ukrainian гей[ɦɛi̯] hey! #182
- Urdu ارے/ə.ɾeː/ hey, ho, oh, whew, yo #96
- Vietnamese ơi[ʔəːj˧˧] vocative particle; oh, hey #231
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) 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.