Welcome in many languages

How to welcome people in a variety of different languages.

Cick on any of the words that are links to hear them spoken. If you can provide recordings of other languages, corrections or additional translations, please contact me.

Key to abbreviations: sg = singular (said to one person), pl = plural (said to more than one person), inf = informal, frm = formal, m = male (said by males), f = female (said by females), >m = said to males, >f said to females.

Language Benvengut! Benvenguda! Planvengut! Planvenguda!
Afrikaans Welkom
Albanian Mirë se vjen
Arabic (ahla wa sahla) أهلاً و سهلاً
Armenian (Eastern) Բարի գալուստ! (Bari galu'st)
Armenian (Western) Բարի՜ եկաք: (Pari yegak)
Aromanian Ghini vinit! (plural) Ghini vinishi! (singular)
Azerbaijani Xoş gəlmişsiniz!
Basque Ongi etorri
Batak Menjuah-juah! Horas!
Belarusian Вiтаем (Bitaem - We greet you)
Прывiтанне (Pryvitańne - Greetings)
Bengali স্বাগতম (swāgatam)
Bosnian Dobrodošli
Breton Degemer mat
Bulgarian Добре дошъл (dobre došãl) - to one person
Добре дошли (dobre došli) - to many
Catalan Benvingut (>m), benvinguda (>f), benvinguts (pl), benvingudes (pl/f)
Cebuano Maayong pag-abot
Chamorro Bienbenidu
Chechen Märsha wooghiil (>m) Märsha yooghiil (>f) Märsha dooghiil (pl)
Chinese (Cantonese) 歡迎 (fòonying)
Chinese (Hakka) 歡迎 (fon2 ngiang2)
Chinese (Mandarin) 歡迎光臨 [欢迎光临] (huānyíng guānglín)
Chinese (Taiwanese) 歡迎光臨 (hoan-geng5-kong-lim5)
Cornish Dynnargh dhis
Corsican Bonavinuta
Croatian Dobrodošli
Czech Vítáme tĕ (sg/inf) Vítáme vás (pl/frm)
Danish Velkommen
Dutch Welkom
Esperanto Bonvenon
Estonian Tere tulemast
Ewe Woezor
Finnish Tervetuloa
French Bienvenue
Friulian Agradît / Benvignût
German Willkommen
Georgian კეთილი იყოს თქვენი/შენი მობრძანება
(ketʼili ikos tkʼveni/šeni mobrżaneba)
Greek Καλώς ορίσατε (Kalōs orisate) - frm, Καλώς όρισες (Kalōs orises) - inf
Καλῶς ἤρθατε (Kalós írthate) - frm, Καλῶς ἦρθες (Kalós írthes) - inf
Greenlandic Tikilluarit / Tikilluaritsi
Guaraní Eguahé porá
Hawaiian Aloha
Hebrew (baruch haba) ברוך הבא
Hindi स्वागत   (Svāgat)
Hungarian Üdvözlet
Icelandic Velkomin(n)
Igbo nno̱
Indonesian Selamat datang
Inuktitut ᐊᕆᐅᙵᐃᐹ (arionngaipaa)
Irish (Gaelic) Fáilte, Tá fáilte romhat/romhaibh
Cead míle fáilte (hundred thousand welcomes - seen mainly on signs)
Fáilte romhat isteach! (Welcome here!)
Italian Benvenuto (sg-m) Benvenuti (pl-m)
Benvenuta (sg-f) Benvenute (pl-f)
Japanese ようこそ (yōkoso)
Javanese Sugeng rawuh
Jèrriais Séyiz les beinv'nu(e)(s)!
Kazakh Қош келдіңіз! (Qos, keldiñiz!)
Khmer sourm-sva-kum (Welcome in Khmer) (sourm-sva-kum)
Korean 환영합니다 (hwangyong-hamnida)
Latvian Laipni lūdzam
Limburgish Wilkóm
Lithuanian Sveiki atvykę
Lojban fi'i
Luxembourgish Wëllkomm
Macedonian Добредојде (Dobredojde) - inf
Добредојдовте (Dobredoydovte) - frm
Malay Selamat datang
Maltese Merħba
Manx Failt, Failt royd
Maori Haere mai / Nau mai
Marathi स्वागत आहे   (Svāgat āhe)
Mikmaq Weltasualuleg
Mongolian Тавтай морилогтун (tavtai morilogtun)
Norwegian Velkommen
Occitan Benvengut! Benvenguda! Planvengut! Planvenguda!
Persian (khosh amadid) خوش آمدید
Polish Witamy
Portuguese Bem-vindo (>m) Bem-vinda (>f), Bem-vindos (pl)
Punjabi ਜੀ ਆਇਆ ਨੂੰ (jī āiā nūng)
Romanian Bun venit / Bine ai venit
Russian Добро пожаловать (Dobro požalovat')
Sardinian Bene bennios
Scottish Gaelic Fàilte, Ceud mìle fàilte
Serbian Добродошли (Dobrodošli!)
Sesotho Kena ka kgotso! (sg) Kenang ka kgotso! (pl)
Sicilian Binvinutu
Slovak Vitajte
Slovenian Dobrodošli, Pozdravljeni
Somali Soo dhowow
Spanish Bienvenido (sg) Bienvenidos (pl)
Swahili Karibu
Swedish Välkommen (sg) Välkomna (pl)
Tagalog Maligayang pagdating / Mabuhay
Tahitian Maeva / Manava
Thai ยินดีต้อนรับ (yindii ton rap)
Tigrinya ገንዘብካ (genzebka - lit: it is yours)
እንቋዕ ብደሐን መጻእካ (ənqwaˋ bdeHen meSaəka)
Literally: wonderful that you have arrived safely
እንቋዕ ብድሐን ጸናሕካ (ənqwaˋ bdeHen SenaHka)
Literally: wonderful that you have stayed well (response to above)
Turkish Hoş geldin (sg) Hoş geldiniz (pl/frm)
Ukrainian Ласкаво просимо (Laskavo prosimo)
Urdu (khush āmdīd) خوش آمديد
Uzbek Xush kelibsiz
Venetian Benvegnù / Benvegnesto (sg-m) , Benvegnùa / Benvegnesta (sg-f)
Benvegnùi / Benvegnesti (pl-m) , Benvegnùe / Benvegneste (pl-f)
Vietnamese Hoan nghênh / Được tiếp đãi ân cần
Volapük Vekömö
Walloon Benvnuwe
Welsh Croeso / Croeso cynnes iawn
Xhosa Siya namkela nonke
Yiddish pl (Brukhim-Haboim) ברוכים־הבאים sg (Borekh-Habo) ברוך־הבא
Zulu Ngiyakwemukela (sg) Ngiyanemukela (pl)

If you would like to make any corrections or additions to this page, please contact me. If you can provide audio recordings of any of these phrases, please send them to my email address

You can send me audio files in any format. If you don't know how to make recordings on a computer, you can send me recordings on audio cassette. Let me know if you want to do this and I'll send you my snailmail address. Or you can call me on Skype (omniglot) and I'll do the recording.

Other phrases

Welcome | Hello | How are you? | Long time no see | What's your name? | Where are you from? | Pleased to meet you | Good morning | Good afternoon | Good evening | Good night | Good bye | Good luck | Cheers/Good health | Have a nice day | Bon appetit | Bon voyage | I don't understand | Please say that again | Please speak more slowly | Can you please write it down? | Do you speak ...? | Excuse me | How much is this? | Sorry | Thank you | Where's the toilet? | This gentleman/lady will pay for everything | Would you like to dance with me? | I love you | Get well soon | How do you say ... in [your language]? | Leave me alone! | Help! | Call the police! | Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year | Happy Easter | Happy Birthday | Idioms | It's all Greek to me | It's raining cats and dogs | As easy as falling off a log | A sandwich short of a picnic | When pigs fly | 'Useful' phrases | My hovercraft is full of eels | Tongue twisters | Proverbs, quotations and sayings about language | One language is never enough | Stop the world, I want to get off! | Days of the week

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