How to say “ice” in 39 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 Armenian, where սառցե is the 536th most used word.
- Afrikaans roomys ice cream #1,428
- Albanian akullore ice cream #1,639
- Armenian սառցե icen, made of ice #536
- Basque horma #728
- Bengali বরফ #953
- Bosnian sladoled ice cream #1,675
- Bulgarian лед #1,550
- Catalan gel #1,442
- Chinese 冰淇淋 ice cream #1,316
- Croatian led #1,823
- Czech led #2,275
- Danish is #1,078
- Dutch ijs #1,228
- Finnish jään #1,355
- French glace #1,258
- Galician xeo #1,563
- Greek πάγο #1,886
- Hebrew קרח #1,202
- Hindi आइसक्रीम ice cream #2,479
- Icelandic ís #965
- Indonesian es #756
- Korean 아이스크림 ice cream #950
- Latvian ledus #1,442
- Lithuanian ledas #1,836
- Macedonian мраз #748
- Malay ais #951
- Malayalam ഐസ് #601
- Norwegian is ice, ice cream #1,265
- Persian یخ #1,923
- Portuguese gelo #1,331
- Serbian led #1,656
- Slovak ľad #1,136
- Slovenian led #734
- Spanish hielo #1,508
- Swedish is #1,660
- Tagalog yelo #649
- Turkish buz #1,025
- Urdu برف #1,439
- Vietnamese băng non-hail ice #550
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.