What's your favourite word in a language that isn't your native one?

[wolfette]

My favorite word in a language that isn't my native language is "zanahoria" which means "carrot" in Spanish. It's just such a unique word, especially in comparison with what it is in English, and I love the sound of it. 

What's your favourite word in a language that isn't your native language?

[Zhenni]

My favourite word is Ming明 in Chinese, mainly because of the characters it uses.  It is a combination of the character for sun日 and moon 月 (yuè) put together to mean "bright". It is such a beautiful way of explaining bright, it can also mean to understand and for something to become clear for you. 

I find many Chinese words beautiful but this is my favorite because of the image in my head of the sun and the moon together.

[sillylucy]

My favorite language that is not my native tongue is French. There is just something beautiful in the way that they pronounce words and they say them with such flair. I don't think that English sounds that nice. I understand it is a romance language, but I don't think Spanish has that appeal as well. Italian does, but not so much Spanish. I think that language has a harshness to it that I don't like. 

[FenWoFon]

My favorite word in Italian, eehh... I think it is Mangiare that in english means eat and comer in spanish, there are many words that sound cool for me in various languages but the ones I like the most are Italian / Japanese words, for example Dattebayo!  It is something Naruto used to say 24/7 which means something like Believe it or so.

[petesede]

spanish has some really funny words for foods that just kinda roll out.   chimichanga  and nacatamale along with checharones (fried pig skin)  are some of my favorites.

I also like the way ´english´ is prounced in arabic.. it is like ´ennngleeeeze´

[djordje87]

I like words with hissing sounds like fuss, bus, surplus and many more. I haven't been thinking about this topic very much so I just started browsing some words that are nice to pronounce and I came up with these. I like some Hungarian words as well like csok (kiss), bicska ( a pocket knife), szerelem ( love) and some other but they pronounce everything so funny and it comes out very cool.

[Miya]

Mine is 一期一会 （いちごいちえ） "ichigo ichie" in Japanese. It means "once in a lifetime". I like the Kanji used in this and having "ichigo" in it sounds so cute

[linguaholic]

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[lingualbabe]

It has to be "saranghae" which means "I love you" in Korean. In Hangul writing: 사랑해. I have watched a lot of Korean television series and movies so even before I was studying Korean, I already know what "saranghae" means. And I like the way that Koreans pronounce it, it's always so gentle and timid... Like they're too shy to admit it to the one they love. Lol. 

Another one would be "annyeong" which means goodbye, again in Korean. In Hangul writing: 안녕. Again, it's so cute the way they say this. Imagine someone this cute saying "annyeong" to you:

[Teira Eri]

Though I love a lot of different words from all over the world, one screams, "pick me, pick me."

It's fernweh, German for wanderlust.  The other that equally rivals fernweh is shimoyake, Japanese for frostbite.

[Danili]

My favorite word in Spanish is amarillo, and in second place would be madrugada! I speak next to nothing in Turkish but for some reason I like the word ekmek, which means bread. 

I have this thing called synesthesia, which means I associate food with words. Yes, you read that correctly. Most people with this associate colors with numbers, not food with words, but I'm weird like that! So words sound even better for me...

[Mary84]

This is a very interesting topic, I love to learn different words in other languages and I didn't know most of the words posted in the thread. There are several beautiful words in every language, it's very hard to pick only one. My favorite spanish words are:

-Caricia (it means caress)

-Alma (it means soul)

-Sangre (it means blood)

- Azar (it means chance)

- Sobremasa (it is the conversation that takes place after dinner, while still seated at the table, it's such an unique word.)

-Estrella (it means star)

Spanish is such a passionate language and although it might sound similar to my native tongue, I love the way spanish people pronunce the words.

I love many english words too, just off the top of my head I'd say my favorite ones are "ethereal", "epiphany", "nefarious", "redundant".

 

[Trellum]

For me it would be ''Ranchu'' :3  It's a word used to describe a type of goldfish that originated in China, but was further developed to look like it looks today in Japan.  Needless to say  this has increased (and also the fact I've been watching a ot Vlogs about Mexican women living in Japan lately) my interest in Japanese   Just look at them:

 

 

 

 

My fascination with Asian cultures keeps growing and growing, who knows, I might feel like adding Chinese to my list in the future   Right after Japanese, of course   Another words I like are:

 

- Iris 

- Gezelig

- Farfalla 

- Skal

 

[sillylucy]

I love to say "butterfly" in French. It is "papillon" in French. I just love the way it sounds for some reason. It is very pleasant to my ears. 

[Mereloshn]

I like the word "Etlekher" which means "Several" in Yiddish and often use it when talking about languages (sphrakhn in Yiddish) because I have studied and learned about several languages at this point and I love the word "Vosotros" which means "You" in plural form in Spanish as spoken in Spaniard Spanish.  I actually prefer vosotros over ustedes, the Latin American Spanish word for You in plural. 

[poftim]

Wow, where do I start with Romanian?

frumoasă = feminine form of beautiful - it just sounds beautiful to me!
bufniță = owl
fluture = butterfly (I like it as much as the French word)
zgomot = noise
a zgudui = to shake
a zgâria = to scratch ("zgârie-nori" means skyscraper, literally "scratches the clouds")
zbor = flight (I like the zg- and zb- words)
poftim (yeah, I know it's my username) has at least three meanings: (1) the equivalent of voilà, (2) pardon, (3) an invitation, e.g. "take a seat". And "poftim" amused me the first time I heard it - some words just do - so I use it as my username everywhere now!

The formal word for "you" in Romanian is dumneavoastră, which is quite a mouthful!

I also really like barbabietola, the Italian word for beetroot.

[Mereloshn]

9 hours ago, poftim said:

poftim (yeah, I know it's my username) has at least three meanings: (1) the equivalent of voilà, (2) pardon, (3) an invitation, e.g. "take a seat". And "poftim" amused me the first time I heard it - some words just do - so I use it as my username everywhere now!

 

So that's what your username is.  I actually based my username on the term "mame loshn" which is a Yiddish slang term used to describe the Yiddish language.  It literally means "mother tongue" so I took that phrase and replaced mame with the French word for mother (mere) and used that to create my username, a hybrid of French/Yiddish term. 

[babelle]

Ahahaha, @Mary84 beat me to it but my favorite Spanish words are also Estrella (star) and sangre. These words are very special to me since Estrella is my mom's name and sangre is blood which could be romanticized as blood ties. My mother has Spanish-Chinese blood and she was a beautiful and regal lady unlike me LOL. 

I'll settle for les pierreries instead, which means the jewels, because I've come to associate the word with what my maternal grandmother has left me as my 'inheritance' - a box of pearls, stones, and jewels. They are inexpensive pieces, but they are priceless because my grandmother treasured them.

 

[clair02]

Mine has to be 'amore' which means love in italian. It just sounds so romantic and beautiful. 

[Victor Leigh]

I really like the Thai word 'thiau' (เที่ยว). This word expresses a very Thai attitude to life. When a Thai says 'pai thiau', he means that he is just going somewhere with no particular business in mind, essentially going somewhere just for fun. If a Thai invites you to his house and say 'ma thiau thi ban', he means just to come for the fun of it, without any occasion attached to the visit.

[AExAVF]

Spanish swear words keep ringing in my head, as I used to play Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on my PS2 and am also checking the videos about the various missions.  The most frequently used Spanish non-swear word which I hear is "vato" meaning dude in Spanish.  "Baka" means idiot/fool in Japanese. so when I'm saying that person is a "baka", it means he is an idiot or moron.

[cardinals27]

I don't know if I really have a favorite word but sacapuntas is a pretty funny word. It means pencil sharpener, which Sint anything special but it just sounds funny.

[Milner77]

I hаvе twо fаvоuritе Spаnish wоrds аnd аs suсh usе thеsе vеry vеry vеryyyyy оftеn...
1. Buеnо (аdjесtivе). I usе this tо mеаn "Wеll", "Gооd", "оK!", аnd "аll right!" еg. Buеnо; tеngо quе соmеr/Wеll, I hаvе tо еаt.
It is аn unсоmpliсаtеd wоrd, nо frills, vеry соmmоn, аnd vеry impоrtаnt. It's multi usе is еxtrеmеly usеful in соnvеrsаtiоn. Sо а big wоrd fоr mе.

2. Mirа! frоm thе vеrb Mirаr (Tо lооk). I lоvе this wоrd аs it is а fаntаstiс аttеntiоn gеttеr. Sаy sоmеоnе is wаlking аwаy frоm yоu! whаt dо yоu sаy if yоu still wаnt tо sаy sоmеthing? Mirа! оf соursе. Thе pеrsоn immеdiаtеly turns аrоund tо listеn . In а litеrаl sеnsе mirа mеаns "Lооk" "Lооk hеrе" But, аnоthеr big оnе fоr mе.
Thеrе аrе mоrе оf соursе but thе оnеs аbоvе аrе rеаlly my 2 fаvоuritеs.

[GaeilgeGirl]

This may sound a little mean, but my favorite is the German word "schadenfreude".  It means taking delight in another person't misfortune.  While it's not the nicest, it's certainly a human thing, and we've all done it.  I appreciate the Germans for being honest about something that really doesn't translate into English very well.  I think this might be one of the better-known German words in the U.S.  The musical "Avenue Q" did a song about it.  The language are a bit "rough" if you want to look it up on YouTube.

[stogian]

My favorite word is not a word is a phrase "Comme ci Comme ca" which is in French and it means "so so" 
I think that it sounds really nice!
Cyprus had a song with this title in Eurovision!