How to say “ice” in 39 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.
- hielo/ˈʝelo/ Spanish
- πάγο/ˈpaɣo/ Greek
- קרח/ˈkeʁaχ/ Hebrew
- বরফ/bɔɾopʰ/ Bengali
- ഐസ്/äjsɨ̆/ Malayalam
- یخ[jæx] Persian
“ice” in Spanish: hielo · French: glace · Portuguese: gelo · Turkish: buz · Greek: πάγο
It is commonest in Malayalam, where ഐസ് is the 601st most used word.
Ice in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans roomys/ˈrʊəmɛɪs/ ice cream #1,428
- Albanian akullore/akuˈɫoɾe/ ice cream #1,639
- Armenian սառցե/sɑrˈt͡sʰe/ icen, made of ice #536
- Basque horma/ˈoɾma/ #728
- Bengali বরফ/bɔɾopʰ/ #953
- Bosnian sladoled/slâdoleːd/ ice cream #1,675
- Bulgarian лед[lɛt] #1,550
- Catalan gel[ˈʒɛl] #1,442
- Chinese 冰淇淋/piŋ⁵⁵ t͡ɕʰi³⁵ lin³⁵/ ice cream #1,316
- Croatian led/lêːd/ #1,823
- Czech led[ˈlɛt] #2,275
- Danish is/ˈiːˀs/ #1,078
- Dutch ijs/ɛi̯s/ #1,228
- Finnish jään/ˈjæːn/ #1,355
- French glace/ɡlas/ #1,258
- Galician xeo/ˈʃeo/ #1,563
- Greek πάγο/ˈpaɣo/ #1,886
- Hebrew קרח/ˈkeʁaχ/ #1,202
- Hindi आइसक्रीम/ɑː.ɪs.kɾiːm/ ice cream #2,479
- Icelandic ís[ˈiːs] #965
- Indonesian es/ˈɛs/ #756
- Korean 아이스크림[a̠isʰɯkxɯɾim] ice cream #950
- Latvian ledus[ˈlædus] #1,442
- Lithuanian ledas[²ˈlʲæːdɐs] #1,836
- Macedonian мраз[mras] #748
- Malay ais/ˈais/ #951
- Malayalam ഐസ്/äjsɨ̆/ #601
- Norwegian is/ˈiːs/ ice, ice cream #1,265
- Persian یخ[jæx] #1,923
- Portuguese gelo/ˈʒe.lu/ #1,331
- Serbian led/lêːd/ #1,656
- Slovak ľad/ʎat/ #1,136
- Slovenian led/léːt/ #734
- Spanish hielo/ˈʝelo/ #1,508
- Swedish is/iːs/ #1,660
- Tagalog yelo/ˈjelo/ #649
- Turkish buz/ˈbuz/ #1,025
- Urdu برف/bəɾf/ #1,439
- Vietnamese băng[ʔɓaŋ˧˧] non-hail ice #550
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), Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 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.