How to say Bon Appétit in 23 other Languages
Food for thought:Probably all languages have formulaic utterances which are said on certain occasions, e.g. French 'bon appétit!' – "good appetite" said to guests at the dinner table, or French 'bon voyage' – "good trip", said to travellers. The fact that some of these have been borrowed into English from other languages, like French, is indicative of the fact that English does not have ready-made concise equivalent formulas for these occasions.
Commonly used substitutes in English are: 'Enjoy your Meal!' or perhaps the host saying: 'Do start' or 'Don't wait'.
Here are some some equivalents in other Languages:
| Catalan | Bon profit! |
| Croatian | Dobar tek! |
| Danish | Velbekomme! |
| Dutch | Smakelijk eten! |
| French | Bon appétit! |
| German | Guten appetit! |
| Hebrew (transliterated) | Bete'avon! |
| Hungarian | Jó étvágyat! |
| Italian | Buon appetito! |
| Japanese (transliterated) | Itadakimas! |
| Korean (transliterated) | Mani deuseyo! |
| Lithuanian | Gero apetito!/Skanaus! |
| Modern Greek (transliterated) | Kale orexe! |
| Norwegian | Vær så god! |
| Persian | Noosh-e jan! |
| Polish | Smacznego! |
| Portuguese | Bom apetite! |
| Russian (transliterated) | Priiatnogo appetita! |
| Serbian (transliterated) | Prijatno! |
| Spanish | ¡Buen provecho! |
| Swedish | Smaklig måltid! |
| Turkish | Afiyet olson! |
| Yiddish (transliterated) | Est gezunterhayt! |
Source :-
recipes.chef2chef.net