How to say “yes” in 45 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.
- sí/ˈsi/ Spanish
- да[ˈda] Russian
- نعم/na.ʕam/ Arabic
- 응[ɯŋ] Korean
- हाँ/ɦɑ̃ː/ Hindi
- ναι[ne̞] Greek
“yes” in Spanish: sí · French: oui · German: doch · Italian: sì · Korean: 응 · Russian: да · Arabic: نعم · Hindi: हाँ
It is commonest in Macedonian, where да is the 1st most used word.
Yes in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans ja/jaː/ #32
- Albanian po/pɔ/ #9
- Arabic نعم/na.ʕam/ #23
- Armenian հա/hɑ/ #36
- Basque bai/bai̯/ #6
- Bengali হ্যাঁ/hæ̃/ #44
- Bosnian jeste/ˈjestɛ/ emphatic yes #160
- Catalan sí[ˈsi] #26
- Chinese 喂/weɪ̯³⁵/ hello?; yes? #58
- Croatian jeste/ˈjestɛ/ emphatic yes #162
- Czech ano[ˈano] #37
- Danish ja/ja/ #35
- Dutch ja/jaː/ #44
- English yeah/jɛ(ə)/ #62
- Esperanto jes/jes/ #24
- Estonian jah/ˈjɑh/ yes, indeed #16
- Finnish joo/ˈjoː/ yeah, yes #257
- French oui/ɥi/ #54
- Georgian დიახ[d̥iäχ] #80
- German doch/dɔx/ yes; surely; really; on the contrary #68
- Greek ναι[ne̞] #26
- Hebrew כן/ken/ #11
- Hindi हाँ/ɦɑ̃ː/ #41
- Hungarian igenis[ˈiɡɛniʃ] but, yes #1,044
- Icelandic já[ˈjauː] #18
- Italian sì/ˈsi/ #54
- Korean 응[ɯŋ] #67
- Lithuanian taip[²ˈtɐɪˑp] #7
- Macedonian да[da(ː)] #1
- Malayalam അതെ/ɐd̪e/ #16
- Norwegian ja/jɑː/ #33
- Persian ها[hɒː] yeah, yes #18
- Polish owszem/ˈɔf.ʂɛm/ certainly, yes, of course #1,253
- Russian да[ˈda] #14
- Serbian jeste/ˈjestɛ/ emphatic yes #152
- Slovak áno/aːnɔ/ #20
- Slovenian da/dá/ #3
- Spanish sí/ˈsi/ yes, yeah #24
- Swedish ja/jɑː/ #35
- Tagalog oo/ˈʔoʔo/ #31
- Tamil ஆமாம்/ɑːmɑːm/ yes, quite so, indeed #28
- Telugu అవును/aʋunu/ #15
- Turkish evet/ˈe.vet/ #12
- Urdu ہاں/ɦɑ̃ː/ #36
- Vietnamese phải[faːj˧˩] #19
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.