Onomatowhatnow? Learn 40 Funny Sound Words from Around the World

In Hebrew, “cleek cleek” isn't what you say when tapping glasses after a toast — it’s the sound of a mouse, known in English as “squeak.” Similarly, mice say “cheek cheek” in Poland — so cheeky. “Pip pip” in Swedish makes sense for the sound of pipsqueak rodents, as does “squitt” in Italian (not far from “squeak”). But mice say “chuu” in Japanese and “jjik” in Korean? Holy squeak.

The sound of a doorbell or church bell in other countries is pretty different from “ding dong” in English, but at least we all seem to agree that the ringing is a two-part process: It’s “bim bam” in Dutch and “kan ban” in Greek, for example. Funny enough, two Portuguese-speaking countries don’t agree on this onomatopoeia, though: They say “dlim dlão” in Portugal and "dim dom" in Brazil. Now can someone please get the door already?

Old MacDonald had a pig. Ee-i-ee-i-o! With a “buu” in Japan. And a “nöff in Sweden. Here in Albania a “hunk.” There in South Africa an “ogch”. Everywhere a “grunz” “grunz” (okay, fine, just in Germany). Stop, I'm laughing so hard I'm snorting ... or should I say "ogching."

Well, would you just look at the time! When hickory-dickory-dock the mouse runs up the clock in other languages, it doesn’t hear “tick tock” when it strikes one, like it does in English — although “tik tik” in Hindi is pretty darn close. The clock sounds like “dī dā” in Mandarin and “katchin katchin” in Japanese. And “tic tac” in Italian and Spanish makes us want to pop some breath mints.

Want to sound like an international comic book superhero? Your speech bubbles would say “ba bakh!” or “pif paf!” in Russian and “dor!” in Indonesia. The Italian and French versions aren’t far from each other: “bum pum!” and “boum pan!” respectively. But we’re banging our heads at the Estonian translation: “põmm kõmm pauh karpauh!” as well as the Lithuanian: “bumpt bum pokšt!” Totally blown away!

Dogs who bark in multiple languages are truly the good-est dogs. Human’s best friends say “wai wai” in Nigeria and “voff voff” in Icelandic (like “woof woof” in English sorta?) and “av av” in Serbia (like “arf arf” in English sorta?)… But “hong hong” in Thai and “guk guk” in Indonesian, really? You’re yanking our dog-chain.

Remember the old Bobby Darin song Splish-splash I was taking a bath...? Well, it might have gone “krapt krapt, I was taking a bath” in Lithuanian (yup). Or maybe “Huá huá, I was taking a bath” makes you want to dance the Mashed Potato? “Plitsch platsch” in German and “plic ploc” in French aren’t quite as far from the English “splish splash,” but none of these super-soaker onomatopoeias are watered down.

If you say “cockle doodle doo” to a rooster in other countries, you’ll really confuse him (and you do not want to make a rooster angry). If you’re really looking to communicate with the king of the farm, say “kukeleku” in South Africa. You’ll want to greet a rooster in Colombian with “kikiriki”, “cocorico” in French, and “ko ke kok ko o” in Japanese — so there’s agreement in all those languages that rooster-speak starts with a K-type sound. But in Turkish? Not so much. There roosters say “ü-ürü-ü”. And there you have it: “Cockle doodle doo” is for the (English-speaking) birds.