How to say “hospital” in 46 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.
- hospital/ospiˈtal/ Spanish
- مستشفى/mus.taʃ.fan/ Arabic
- 醫院/i⁵⁵ ɥɛn⁵¹/ Chinese
- 병원[ˈpjɘ(ː)ŋwʌ̹n] Korean
- अस्पताल/əs.pə.t̪ɑːl/ Hindi
- νοσοκομείο/nosokoˈmio/ Greek
“hospital” in Spanish: hospital · French: hôpital · German: krankenhaus · Italian: ospedale · Portuguese: hospital · Chinese: 醫院 · Korean: 병원 · Arabic: مستشفى
It is commonest in Korean, where 병원 is the 497th most used word.
Hospital in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans hospitaal/ˈɦɔs.piˌtɑːl/ #593
- Albanian spital/spital/ #605
- Arabic مستشفى/mus.taʃ.fan/ #1,071
- Basque ospitale/os̺pitale/ #1,015
- Bengali হাসপাতাল/haʃpat̪al/ #1,003
- Bosnian bolnica/bǒːlnit͡sa/ #2,015
- Bulgarian болница[ˈbɔɫnit͡sɐ] #964
- Catalan hospital[us.piˈtal] #673
- Chinese 醫院/i⁵⁵ ɥɛn⁵¹/ hospital; polyclinic; general hospital #1,253
- Croatian bolnica/bǒːlnit͡sa/ #1,958
- Czech nemocnice[ˈnɛmot͡sɲɪt͡sɛ] #869
- Danish hospitalet/hosbiˈtaːˀləð/ #811
- Dutch ziekenhuis/ˈzi.kə(n)ˌɦœy̯s/ a hospital, medical care facility #634
- Esperanto malsanulejo/malsanuˈlejo/ #1,090
- Estonian haigla/ˈhɑi̯ɡ̊lɑ/ #1,386
- Finnish sairaalaan/ˈsairaːlaːn/ #1,356
- French hôpital/o.pi.tal/ #611
- Galician hospital/ɔspiˈtal/ #627
- German krankenhaus/ˈkʁaŋkn̩ˌhaʊ̯s/ #796
- Greek νοσοκομείο/nosokoˈmio/ #586
- Hindi अस्पताल/əs.pə.t̪ɑːl/ #535
- Hungarian kórházba[ˈkoːrɦaːzbɒ] #1,315
- Icelandic sjúkrahús[ˈsjuːkraˌhuːs] #1,692
- Italian ospedale/os.peˈda.le/ #633
- Korean 병원[ˈpjɘ(ː)ŋwʌ̹n] #497
- Latvian slimnīcā/ˈslimniːt͡saː/ #1,232
- Lithuanian ligoninė[lʲɪ¹ˈɡoːnʲɪnʲeː] #1,568
- Macedonian болница[ˈbɔɫnit͡sa] #602
- Malay hospital/hosˈpital/ #600
- Malayalam ആശുപത്രി/aːʃubɐt̪ri/ #804
- Norwegian sykehuset/ˈsyːkəˌhʉːsə/ a hospital #848
- Persian بیمارستان[biː.mɒː.ɹes.t̪ʰɒ́ːn] hospital; bimaristan #1,223
- Polish szpitala/ʂpiˈta.la/ #999
- Portuguese hospital/os.piˈtaw/ #595
- Romanian spital[spiˈtal] #660
- Russian врач[vrat͡ɕ] therapist, not surgeon, not hospital nurse #1,473
- Serbian bolnica/bǒːlnit͡sa/ #2,032
- Slovak nemocnica/ɲemɔt͡sɲit͡sa/ #1,250
- Slovenian bolnišnica/bɔʋníːʃnit͡sa/ #1,075
- Spanish hospital/ospiˈtal/ #591
- Swedish sjukhuset/ˈsxʉkhʉsɛt/ a hospital #861
- Tagalog mental/ˈmental/ mental hospital #1,450
- Tamil மருத்துவமனை/mɐɾʊt̪ːʊʋɐmɐnɐɪ̯/ hospital, clinic, nursing home #855
- Telugu ఆసుపత్రి/aːsupat̪ɾi/ #855
- Turkish hastane/has.taːˈne/ #1,683
- Urdu اسپتال/əs.pə.t̪ɑːl/ #2,173
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) and Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.