How to say “smoke” in 37 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.
- fumar/fuˈmaɾ/ Spanish
- עשן/aˈʃan/ Hebrew
- ვეწევი[ve̞t͡sʼe̞vi] Georgian
- புகை/pʊɡɐɪ̯/ Tamil
- പുക/puɡɐ/ Malayalam
- పొగ/poɡa/ Telugu
“smoke” in Spanish: fumar · French: fumer · German: rauchen · Italian: fumo · Portuguese: fumar · Turkish: duman
It is commonest in Afrikaans, where rook is the 645th most used word.
Smoke in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans rook/rʊə̯k/ #645
- Albanian tym/ˈtym/ #2,067
- Basque kea/ˈkea/ #1,196
- Bosnian dim/dîm/ #2,236
- Catalan fumar[fuˈma] to smoke #2,216
- Croatian dim/dîm/ #2,301
- Danish ryger/ryːɡər/ to smoke #883
- Dutch rook/roːk/ to smoke #1,585
- English smoking/ˈsmoʊkɪŋ/ To inhale and exhale the smoke from a burning… #2,315
- Esperanto fumas/ˈfumas/ to smoke #2,046
- French fumer/fy.me/ to smoke #2,265
- Galician fume[ˈfumɪ] to smoke #1,929
- Georgian ვეწევი[ve̞t͡sʼe̞vi] to smoke #1,175
- German rauchen/ˈʁaʊ̯xən/ to smoke, give off smoke #2,003
- Hebrew עשן/aˈʃan/ #1,941
- Icelandic reykja[ˈreiːca] to smoke #856
- Indonesian merokok/məˈrokoʔ/ to smoke #1,333
- Italian fumo/ˈfu.mo/ #2,167
- Lithuanian rūkyti[ruː¹ˈkʲiːtʲɪ] to smoke smoke from a cigar, pipe, etc #1,510
- Macedonian чад[t͡ʃat] #2,113
- Malay merokok[mə.ro.koʔ] to smoke #1,323
- Malayalam പുക/puɡɐ/ smoke, the visible gaseous and particulate… #723
- Norwegian røyk/rœʏ̯k/ to smoke #1,724
- Persian دود[d̪uːd̪̥] #1,399
- Portuguese fumar/fuˈma(ʁ)/ to smoke, to deliberately inhale smoke #1,913
- Romanian fum/ˈfum/ #2,148
- Serbian dim/dîm/ #2,184
- Slovak fajčiť/fajt͡ʃic/ to smoke #1,438
- Slovenian dim/dím/ #992
- Spanish fumar/fuˈmaɾ/ to smoke #2,422
- Swedish röka/ˈrøːka/ to smoke #1,962
- Tagalog usok/ˈʔusok/ smoke; black or dark smoke #925
- Tamil புகை/pʊɡɐɪ̯/ smoke, fume #831
- Telugu పొగ/poɡa/ #746
- Turkish duman/duˈman/ smoke, roke #2,370
- Urdu دھواں/d̪ʱuː.ɑ̃ː/ #2,272
- Vietnamese khói[xɔj˧˦] #1,639
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 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.