How to say “hungry” in 32 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 Turkish, where aç is the 407th most used word.
- Arabic جائع #975
- Armenian քաղցած #1,820
- Bengali ক্ষুধার্ত #812
- Bosnian gladan #1,184
- Bulgarian гладен #1,264
- Croatian gladan #1,254
- Danish sulten hungry, wanting to eat #889
- Esperanto malsatas to be hungry, to hunger #948
- Estonian näljane #979
- Georgian მშია to be hungry #1,094
- German satt not hungry, satiated, full, done #1,950
- Greek πεινάω to be hungry, be famished #1,827
- Hebrew רעב #898
- Hindi भूखा hungry, starving #1,904
- Hungarian éhes #1,042
- Icelandic svangur hungry, peckish #847
- Indonesian lapar #776
- Latvian izsalcis hungry, famished, starving, starved;… #1,564
- Lithuanian alkana #1,789
- Macedonian гладен #858
- Malay lapar #708
- Norwegian sulten #879
- Persian گرسنه #937
- Polish głodny #1,777
- Serbian gladan #1,135
- Slovak hladný #790
- Slovenian lačen #491
- Swedish hungrig #994
- Turkish aç hungrily, in a hungry state #407
- Ukrainian голодний #1,800
- Urdu بھوکا #856
- Vietnamese đói #966
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.