How To Say “Onion” In Different Languages
Blog
08 March 2026
By Sarah Angela Almaden
Unsplash: Kelvin Zyteng
The thing is, onions can be a bit sensitive. When you chop them, they release a chemical irritant called syn-propanethial-S-oxide. It floats into the air and hits your eyes, triggering a teary reaction that feels. Frankly, I think this is a bit rude for onions… Hey-ho. These yummy bulbs don’t mean to make you sob over your cutting board, but that chemical reaction doesn't care about your feelings.
- English: onion (oh-nyon)
- Spanish: la cebolla (la seh-boy-ya)
- Mandarin Chinese: 洋葱 (yahng-tsung)
- Japanese: たまねぎ (tah-mah-neh-ghee)
- Brazilian Portuguese: a cebola (ah seh-boh-lah)
- Tagalog: ang sibuyas (ahng see-boo-yas)
- Vietnamese: củ hành (koo hah-ng)
- Korean: 양파 (yang-pah)
- Ukrainian: цибуля (tsee-boo-lya)
- Polish: cebula (tseh-boo-lah)
- Hungarian: a vöröshagyma (ah vur-ush-hah-dymah)
- Dutch: de ui (duh oy)
- German: die Zwiebel (dee tsvee-behl)
- Italian: la cipolla (la chee-pohl-lah)
- French: l’oignon (lo-nyoh)
- Finnish: sipuli (see-poo-lee)
- Norwegian: løken (lur-kehn)
- Swedish: löken (lur-kehn)
- Greek: το κρεμμύδι (toh kreh-mee-dee)
- Catalan: la ceba (la seh-bah)
- Turkish: soğan (soh-ahn)
- Arabic: البصل (al-bah-sal)
- Danish: løget (loy-it)
- Romanian: ceapa (chah-pah)
- Esperanto: la cepo (la tseh-poh)
- Indonesian: bawang Bombay (bah-wahng bom-bay)
- Swahili: kitunguu (kee-toon-goo)
- Icelandic: laukurinn (loy-kur-in)
- Igbo: yabasị (yah-bah-see)
- Latvian: sīpols (see-pohls)


