How to say “west” in 38 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.
- oeste/oˈeste/ Spanish
- 서[sʰʌ̹] Korean
- पश्चिम/pəʃ.t͡ʃɪm/ Hindi
- מערב/maʁˈraːb/ Hebrew
- დასავლეთით[d̥äsävle̞tʰitʰ] Georgian
- পশ্চিম/pɔʃt͡ʃim/ Bengali
“west” in Spanish: oeste · French: ouest · German: westen · Portuguese: oeste · Korean: 서 · Hindi: पश्चिम · Turkish: batı
It is commonest in Korean, where 서 is the 360th most used word.
West in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans wes/ˈvɛs/ #1,487
- Armenian արևմտյան/ɑɾevməˈt͡sjɑn/ western, west #1,056
- Basque mendebal/mendebal/ #2,274
- Bengali পশ্চিম/pɔʃt͡ʃim/ #1,147
- Bosnian zapad/zâːpad/ #2,484
- Bulgarian запад[ˈzapɐt] #1,877
- Catalan oest[uˈest] #1,336
- Chinese 東西/tʊŋ⁵⁵ ɕi⁵⁵/ from east to west #300
- Danish vest/vɛst/ toward the west, westwards #2,005
- Dutch westen/ˈʋɛs.tə(n)/ the West #1,966
- English west/wɛst/ Towards the west; westwards #1,197
- Esperanto okcidento/okt͡siˈdento/ #1,872
- Estonian lääne/ˈlæːne/ #1,751
- French ouest/wɛst/ #1,722
- Galician oeste/ɔˈɛste/ #999
- Georgian დასავლეთით[d̥äsävle̞tʰitʰ] west, westerly, westward, westwards #982
- German westen/ˈvɛstən/ the west #2,431
- Hebrew מערב/maʁˈraːb/ #1,945
- Hindi पश्चिम/pəʃ.t͡ʃɪm/ #903
- Icelandic vestur[ˈvɛstʏr] #1,216
- Indonesian barat/ˈbarat/ #1,014
- Korean 서[sʰʌ̹] #360
- Latvian rietumiem/ˈrietumiem/ #2,148
- Macedonian запад[ˈzapat] #1,406
- Malay barat/ˈbarat/ The west #876
- Malayalam പടിഞ്ഞാറ്/pɐʈiɲɲaːrɨ/ #1,068
- Norwegian vest/ˈvɛst/ #2,088
- Persian غرب[qæɹb̥] the west #1,175
- Portuguese oeste/oˈɛs.t͡ʃi/ #1,777
- Romanian vest/ˈvest/ #1,427
- Slovak západ/zaːpat/ #1,308
- Spanish oeste/oˈeste/ #1,696
- Tagalog kanluran/kanˈluɾan/ west; the direction of sunset #1,573
- Tamil மேற்கு/meːrkɯ/ #371
- Turkish batı/baˈtɯ/ #1,258
- Ukrainian захід[ˈzaxʲid] #1,787
- Urdu مغرب/məɣ.ɾɪb/ the west, the West #1,378
- Vietnamese tây[təj˧˧] #717
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) 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.