Language Learning Tips And Fun Facts: How do you ask for breakfast, and eggs, boiled, fried or scrambled, in English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese, Malay and more?

Flag of Spain.

In Spain we checked into our hotel, a parador, late at night. Next morning we came down for breakfast. Where was breakfast? What was the Spanish word for breakfast? The receptionist did not understand English, breakfast, nor French, petit Dejeuner, german, frushstuck. Niet (Rusian for no). She did not understand. We had to wait another fifteen minutes whilst I caught the lift back to the bedroom floor, walked the corridor, hunted for my key, found the key to my suitcase, located the Spanish English dictionary, and retraced my steps to my husband ('What kept you so long?')

Desayuno!

The Spanish for breakfast is desayuno. We could not have worked it out in a million years. Now we know. Never forgotten. Desperate for breakfast. Ay-yi-yi. You know. (Now you know.) Desayuno.

So far, so good. Now we wanted to order eggs. The waitress and chefs offered many choices. What were they?

Left: Fried egg (UK) or sunny side up (USA). Right : Over easy (USA), fried egg (turned over and) cooked both sides (UK)

English - American

Fried egg - sunny side up

American - English

sunny side up - (normal) fried egg

over easy - fried egg (turned over and) cooked both sides (to seal the white)

English - Spanish

Boiled Egg

hard boiled egg

soft boiled egg

fried egg

scrambled egg

peached egg

omelette

From translate google I received these translations

Spanish

Huevo duro Huevo cocido huevo pasado por agua huevo frito huevos revueltos huevo escalfado tortilla

Malay

Telur rebus telur rebus telur rebus lembut telur goreng telur hancur telur rebus telur dadar

French

Oeuf dur œuf dur oeuf à la coque oeuf frit oeuf brouillé oeuf poché omelette

German

Gekochtes Ei
hartgekochtes Ei (hard cooked)
weich gekochtes Ei
Spiegelei (mirror egg)
Rührei
pochiertes Ei (like a pocket egg)
Omelette

Chinese (Simplified)

水煮蛋

水煮蛋

水煮蛋

煎鸡蛋

炒鸡蛋

荷包蛋

煎蛋卷

Shuǐ zhǔ dàn

shuǐ zhǔ dàn

shuǐ zhǔ dàn

jiān jīdàn

chǎo jīdàn

hébāodàn

jiān dàn juǎn

If you want any more languages, just copy my English words above, paste them into Translate Google under English on the left, select your chosen language on the right.

Either reverse the words from the chosen language back to English to see if you get the same thing. Or check with a native speaker. Or a physical dictionary - now at least you know what to look for in the other language. Or al of the above. If you read aloud each time, you should have memorized it. You can also get the pronunciation from translate google, just look for the lousepeaker symbol, or from dictionary.com or wikipedia and wikirecipe

On the Facebook Polyglot page this was suggested succinctly.

fried eggs: huevos fritos

scrambled eggs: huevos revueltos

sunny side up: huevos estrellados

The Spanish word for fried egg, estrellados, comes from the word star, describing the yellow in the middle of the white like a star. (The English name Stella comes from the word star.)

(I keep writing f r i e d and a spellchecker waits until I look away and then keeps turning the word back to f r i e n d.)

Spanish omelette, according to Wikipedia:

ortilla de patatas, tortilla de papas or tortilla española

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_omelette#:~:text=Spanish%20omelette

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_cuisine

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Spanish_cuisine#Q622512

Facebook Polyglots

https://www.facebook.com/groups/polygotcommunity

translate google

About the Author

Angela Lansbury is a teacher of English and other languages to Toastmasters clubs and businesses.