How to say “water” in 53 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.
- agua/ˈaɡwa/ Spanish
- вода[vɐˈda] Russian
- ماء/maːʔ/ Arabic
- 물[muɭ] Korean
- पानी/pɑː.niː/ Hindi
- νερό/neˈɾo/ Greek
“water” in Spanish: agua · French: eau · German: wasser · Italian: acqua · Portuguese: água · Korean: 물 · Russian: вода · Arabic: ماء
It is commonest in Tagalog, where tubig is the 139th most used word.
Water in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans ys[ə̟i̯s] ice, frozen water #1,579
- Albanian ujë/ˈujə/ #401
- Arabic ماء/maːʔ/ #826
- Armenian ջուրը/ˈd͡ʒuɾə/ #639
- Basque ura/ˈuɾa/ #352
- Bengali পানি/pani/ #274
- Bosnian vodi/ˈvodɪ/ #512
- Bulgarian вода[voˈda] aqua, water found at room temperature and… #436
- Catalan aigua[ˈaj.ɣwə] #339
- Chinese 高潮/kɑʊ̯⁵⁵ ʈ͡ʂʰɑʊ̯³⁵/ high tide; high water #1,515
- Croatian vodi/ˈvodɪ/ #565
- Czech vody[ˈvodɪ] #951
- Danish vand/ˈvanˀ/ #509
- Dutch water[ʋaːtər] body of water #413
- English ice/aɪs/ Water in frozen form #938
- Esperanto akvo/ˈakvo/ #310
- Estonian vett/vetː/ #649
- Finnish vettä/ˈvetːæ/ #748
- French eau/o/ water, a liquid that is transparent,… #394
- Galician auga/ˈawɡa/ #247
- Georgian წყალი[t͡sʼχʼäli] #542
- German wasser/ˈvasər/ #485
- Greek νερό/neˈɾo/ #436
- Hebrew מים/ˈmajm/ #467
- Hindi पानी/pɑː.niː/ #329
- Hungarian víz[ˈviːz] #866
- Icelandic vatn[ˈvahtn̥] #478
- Indonesian air/ˈair/ #261
- Italian acqua/ˈak.kwa/ #475
- Korean 물[muɭ] #358
- Latvian ūdens[ûːdɛns] #456
- Lithuanian vandens[ʋɐnʲ²ˈdʲɛnˑs] #326
- Macedonian вода[ˈvɔda] #309
- Malay kapal/ˈkapal/ A large water vessel; a ship #287
- Malayalam വെള്ളം/ʋeɭɭɐm/ #140
- Norwegian vannet/²ʋanːət/ water; the chemical compound H₂O, especially… #789
- Persian آب[ʔɒːb̥] #194
- Polish wody/ˈvɔ.dɘ/ #737
- Portuguese água/ˈa.ɡwɐ/ #376
- Romanian apă/ˈa.pə/ #481
- Russian вода[vɐˈda] #1,397
- Serbian vodi/ˈvodɪ/ #511
- Slovak vody/ˈvodi/ #535
- Slovenian voda/ʋɔ̀ːda/ #445
- Spanish agua/ˈaɡwa/ #357
- Swedish vatten/¹vatːɛn/ #537
- Tagalog tubig/ˈtubiɡ/ #139
- Tamil தண்ணீர்/t̪ɐɳːiːɾ/ #873
- Telugu నీరు/niːɾu/ water, as in the substance #680
- Turkish su/su/ water; H₂O #321
- Ukrainian вода[wɔˈda] #686
- Urdu پانی/pɑː.niː/ #416
- Vietnamese nước[nɨək̚˧˦] #248
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.