Phrases |
'Useful' phrases |
Idioms |
Tongue twisters |
Language-related proverbs
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)
|
| 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
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.
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
Copyright 1998- Simon Ager