How to say “life” in 50 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.
- vida/ˈbida/ Spanish
- жизнь[ˈʐɨzʲ(ɪ)nʲ] Russian
- 生活/ʂɤŋ⁵⁵ xu̯ɔ³⁵/ Chinese
- जीवन/d͡ʒiː.ʋən/ Hindi
- ζωή/zoˈi/ Greek
- ცხოვრება[t͡sʰχo̞vɾe̞bä] Georgian
“life” in Spanish: vida · French: vie · Italian: vita · Chinese: 生活 · Russian: жизнь · Hindi: जीवन · Turkish: hayatım · Greek: ζωή
It is commonest in Chinese, where 生活 is the 55th most used word.
Life in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans lewe/ˈlɪəvə/ #102
- Albanian jetën/jɛtən/ #204
- Arabic حياتي/ħa.jaː.tijj/ Of life; living #177
- Armenian կյանք/kjɑnkʰ/ #532
- Basque bizitza/bis̻it͡s̻a/ #131
- Bengali জীবন/d͡ʒibon/ #167
- Bosnian život/ʒǐʋot/ #185
- Bulgarian живот[ʒiˈvɔt] #205
- Catalan vida[ˈbi.ðə] #121
- Chinese 生活/ʂɤŋ⁵⁵ xu̯ɔ³⁵/ #55
- Croatian život/ʒǐʋot/ #171
- Czech život[ˈʒɪvot] #179
- Danish liv/liːv/ #165
- Dutch levens/ˈleːvəns/ #1,392
- English death/dɛθ/ The cessation of life and all associated… #379
- Esperanto vivo/ˈvivo/ #133
- Estonian elu/ˈelu/ #149
- Finnish elämäni/ˈelæˌmænɪ/ life day-to-day existence #738
- French vie/vi/ life, the state of organisms prior to death #128
- Galician vida/ˈbida/ #89
- Georgian ცხოვრება[t͡sʰχo̞vɾe̞bä] #178
- Greek ζωή/zoˈi/ #128
- Hindi जीवन/d͡ʒiː.ʋən/ life, existence, subsistence #156
- Hungarian életben[ˈeːlɛdbɛn] #497
- Icelandic líf[ˈliːv] #228
- Indonesian hidup/ˈhidup/ to be alive; to have life #114
- Italian vita/ˈvi.ta/ #135
- Korean 평생[pʰjʌ̹ŋsʰɛŋ] one's entire life, lifetime #330
- Latvian dzīve/ˈdziːʋe/ #384
- Lithuanian amžius[¹ˈɑˑmʲʒʲʊ̟s] #974
- Macedonian живот[ˈʒivɔt] #146
- Malay hidup/ˈhidop/ #105
- Malayalam ജീവിതം/d͡ʒiːʋid̪ɐm/ life; living #106
- Norwegian livet/ˈliːvə/ #179
- Persian جان[d͡ʒɒːn] soul; life; life-force #269
- Polish życia/ˈʐɘ.t͡ɕa/ #276
- Portuguese viver/viˈve(ʁ)/ to live; to have life #428
- Romanian viața/ˈvja.t͡sa/ #1,376
- Russian жизнь[ˈʐɨzʲ(ɪ)nʲ] #157
- Serbian život/ʒǐʋot/ #173
- Slovak život/ʒivɔt/ #132
- Slovenian življenje/ʒiʋljɛ̀ːnjɛ/ #114
- Spanish vida/ˈbida/ #122
- Swedish liv/liːv/ #155
- Tagalog buhay/ˈbuhaj/ #71
- Tamil வாழ/ʋɑːɻɐ/ to live, sustain life #188
- Turkish hayatım/ha.jaːˈtɯm/ #426
- Ukrainian життя[ʒeˈtʲːa] #124
- Urdu زندگی/zɪn.d̪ə.ɡiː/ #134
- Vietnamese kiếp[kiəp̚˧˦] a life; an incarnation #644
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), 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.