How to say “pig” 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 Danish, where galt is the 286th most used word.
- Afrikaans varke #743
- Albanian derr #1,509
- Arabic خنزير pig, swine, hog #1,522
- Basque txerri #950
- Bosnian svinja #2,022
- Catalan porc pig, swine #1,580
- Croatian svinja #2,181
- Czech prase #2,145
- Danish galt a castrated male pig #286
- Dutch big piglet, little pig #1,908
- Esperanto porkoj #2,145
- Estonian siga #1,273
- Galician porco #1,074
- German schwein swine, pig #1,379
- Greek γουρούνι pig, hog, swine #2,054
- Hebrew חזיר #1,080
- Hindi सूअर pig, boar #778
- Hungarian disznó swine, pig #2,343
- Icelandic svín pig, swine #1,239
- Indonesian babi #1,089
- Italian maiale #2,352
- Korean 돼지 pig, swine #816
- Lithuanian kiaulė pig, piglet #1,561
- Macedonian свиња pig, swine #1,748
- Malay babi #1,048
- Malayalam പന്നി #564
- Norwegian svin hog, pig, swine #1,484
- Persian خوک #962
- Portuguese porco #1,763
- Romanian porc pig, hog, swine #1,643
- Serbian svinja #2,071
- Slovak sviňa #1,257
- Slovenian prašič #1,361
- Swedish svin hog, pig, swine #1,559
- Tagalog baboy #790
- Tamil பன்றி hog, pig, swine #1,180
- Telugu పంది pig, swine, hog #832
- Turkish domuz pig, swine #1,132
- Vietnamese heo a pig #1,534
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.