How to say “live” in 50 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 Albanian, where është is the 6th most used word.
- Afrikaans bly to live #76
- Albanian është to live, stay alive #6
- Arabic عمر to live long, to be long-lived #917
- Armenian կեցցե long live! hail to! hoorah ! #207
- Basque zuzenean #415
- Bengali থাকে to live, to reside #146
- Bosnian živi live, alive #503
- Bulgarian живея to live, to be alive #590
- Catalan viure to live, to be alive #430
- Chinese 生存 to live; to exist; to subsist; to survive #536
- Croatian živi live, alive #529
- Czech žít to live #510
- Danish bor to live, reside, dwell #414
- Dutch leven to live #125
- English survive Of a person, to continue to live; to remain… #1,534
- Esperanto vivas to live #275
- Estonian elada to live #520
- Finnish elää to live, be alive #537
- French vivre to live #437
- Galician vivir to live #312
- Georgian ცხოვრობ to live, reside #765
- German lebt to live, to be alive #723
- Greek υπάρχει to exist, be, live #89
- Hebrew חיים to live #269
- Hindi जीना to live #1,110
- Hungarian él to live #593
- Icelandic lifa to live #381
- Italian vivere to live; to be alive #534
- Latvian dzīvo to live, to be alive #431
- Lithuanian gyventi to live #356
- Macedonian живее to live #388
- Malay tinggal to live; to reside #163
- Malayalam ജീവിക്കുക to live #1,600
- Norwegian bor to live, stay #403
- Polish życie to live #158
- Portuguese viver to live; to have life #428
- Romanian trăi to live, to exist #1,052
- Russian жить to live #372
- Serbian živi live, alive #458
- Slovak žiť to live #312
- Slovenian živeti to live #329
- Spanish vivir to live; to be alive #453
- Swedish lever to live, to be alive #435
- Tagalog mabuhay long live! #446
- Tamil வாழ to live, sustain life #188
- Telugu కలుగు to live, exist #1,983
- Turkish yaşamak to live #830
- Ukrainian жити to live #443
- Urdu رہنا to live #265
- Vietnamese tắm to wash a live body, usually your own; to… #901
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.