How to say “water” in 53 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 Tagalog, where tubig is the 139th most used word.
- Afrikaans ys ice, frozen water #1,579
- Albanian ujë #401
- Arabic ماء #826
- Armenian ջուրը #639
- Basque ura #352
- Bengali পানি #274
- Bosnian vodi #512
- Bulgarian вода aqua, water found at room temperature and… #436
- Catalan aigua #339
- Chinese 高潮 high tide; high water #1,515
- Croatian vodi #565
- Czech vody #951
- Danish vand #509
- Dutch water body of water #413
- English ice Water in frozen form #938
- Esperanto akvo #310
- Estonian vett #649
- Finnish vettä #748
- French eau water, a liquid that is transparent,… #394
- Galician auga #247
- Georgian წყალი #542
- German wasser #485
- Greek νερό #436
- Hebrew מים #467
- Hindi पानी #329
- Hungarian víz #866
- Icelandic vatn #478
- Indonesian air #261
- Italian acqua #475
- Korean 물 #358
- Latvian ūdens #456
- Lithuanian vandens #326
- Macedonian вода #309
- Malay kapal A large water vessel; a ship #287
- Malayalam വെള്ളം #140
- Norwegian vannet water; the chemical compound H₂O, especially… #789
- Persian آب #194
- Polish wody #737
- Portuguese água #376
- Romanian apă #481
- Russian вода #1,397
- Serbian vodi #511
- Slovak vody #535
- Slovenian voda #445
- Spanish agua #357
- Swedish vatten #537
- Tagalog tubig #139
- Tamil தண்ணீர் #873
- Telugu నీరు water, as in the substance #680
- Turkish su water; H₂O #321
- Ukrainian вода #686
- Urdu پانی #416
- Vietnamese nước #248
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.