# Sweet Water (Freshwater)



## Encolpius

I've always been fascinated why English call the *not salty* water *fresh water*. First I thought only my native language picked up that term, but now it seem all langauges use *"sweet water"*. How about your native language, do you use "sweet water? Maybe we can find another "exotic language" using another term and hence find an answer, English is not alone . Thanks a lot. 

Hungarian = édesvíz (sweet)
Czech = sladká voda (sweet)
German = Süßwasser (sweet)
Portuguese = água doce (sweet)
Spanish = agua dulce (sweet)
French = eau douce (sweet)


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## ronanpoirier

Well, in Portuguese you can say "água fresca" (fresh water) to the water you can drink.


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## OldAvatar

Romanian:
apă dulce = sweet water


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## Flaminius

*Chinese:*
淡水 (_dànshuĭ_) - literally tasteless water.

*Japanese:*
淡水 (_tansui_) - from Chinese
真水 (_mamizu_) - real water; native word

*Hebrew:*
מיים מתוקים - (_mayim metukim_) - sweet water


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## Mahaodeh

In Arabic: ماء عذب (maa'un 'athb) = sweet water, more or less because the word 'athb is originally for fresh water and you don't use it for something that has suger in it (i.e, not for sweets or honey or fruit), just for something that does not have slatness or bitterness ...etc. in it,


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## Encolpius

Flaminius said:


> *Chinese:*
> 淡水 (_dànshuĭ_) - literally tasteless water.
> 
> *Japanese:*
> 淡水 (_tansui_) - from Chinese
> 真水 (_mamizu_) - real water; native word


 
 I expected those languages will use different expressions.


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## Juri

Italian: pesce d'*acqua* *dolce,* freshwater fish, p.*di mare* salt-water fish
*acqua potabile *drinking water


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## Hakro

*Finnish:* 
_makea vesi_ (sweet water)

In certain contexts we use _järvivesi_ (lake water) as the opposite of _merivesi_ (sea water, salt water).


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## Frank06

Hi,

In *Dutch*: zoet water or zoetwater. "Zoet" means sweet.

Groetjes,

Frank


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## Encolpius

ronanpoirier said:


> Well, in Portuguese you can say "água fresca" (fresh water) to the water you can drink.


 
Interesting. And did you hear peixe de água fresca, too?


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## ronanpoirier

No, no. We'd say "peixe de água doce". That's interesting, because we could drink a river's water (if it's not poluted, of course!).


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## palacios_eugenia

En español esta bien 
Agua dulce


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## jana.bo99

Croatian:

Slatka voda (from the lakes and rivers), 
Slana voda (from the sea)


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## Dr. Quizá

Encolpius said:


> I've always been fascinated why English call the *not salty* water *fresh water*.



Isn't more fascinating that so many languages use "sweet water" despite it isn't sweet at all?


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## Hakro

> Isn't more fascinating that so many languages use "sweet water" despite it isn't sweet at all?


I believe that "sweet water" is a loan word in most languages, at least in Finnish.


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## Encolpius

It seems the Latin also uses

*aqua dulcis*

But then there's the question why English use fresh water?


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## sokol

We should be clear about which water we are speaking of:
a) water that is meant for the table - or:
b) water that is salty versus water that is not salty

While terms for a) are the ones referring to water landing in your stomach (be it from river water or not) terms for b) are referring to water out there in nature.

In German there is for *a) = Wasser *(water) (no specifier here, even though _Frischwasser _is possible it would be rather unusual to use it - if then _Tafelwasser _would be more usual = table-water) and for *b) = Süsswasser: *_Süsswasser-See_ vs. _Salzwasser-See._
(Of course the use of Süsswasser-See already is unusual as a lake usualy is not salty: the term only is used if in a given context this is not so clear, e. g. when talking about the small lakes of Burgenland of which some are salty.)

Only in a pirates film it would sound logical for the captain ordering his crew to search for *Süsswasser *on an island where they are anchoring: in this case, water meant for drinking and not spoiled by the salty sea.
It would be very unusual to use the term _Süsswasser _otherwise.


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## Black4blue

In Turkish:
*Tatlı su* or *tatlısu* = Sweet water.


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## Orlin

Bulgarian: прясна/сладка вода (fresh/sweet water) vs. солена вода (salty water).


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## apmoy70

In Greek:
«Γλυκό νερό»
ɣli'ko ne'ro (both neuter)
lit "sweet water"
vs
«Αλμυρό νερό»
almi'ro ne'ro (both neuter)
lit. "salty water"


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## HUMBERT0

In Spanish it also varies with context and by country, in Mexico:

If there is a possibility that the water is “salt/sea water”, then you would be specific and say “sweet water/agua dulce”, otherwise…


If you’re referring to water for human consumption then you would say “drinking water/agua potable or agua de tomar”.
There’s also “purified water/agua purificada”
There’s also “spring water/agua de manantial”
Tab water is called “agua de la llave[grifo]”.
If you’re referring to plane drinking water (without anything added) you would say “agua natural”.
If your want to specify the water is fresh, you would say “agua fresca”.
Also, “aguas frescas” is the generic term for water that has been prepared with fruits, or rise, or tamarind, etc. and sugar. Though you can be specific and say: agua de melón, agua de fresa, agua de horchata, agua de chía, agua de sandia, agua de cebada, agua de… etc.


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## apmoy70

apmoy70 said:


> In Greek:
> «Γλυκό νερό»
> ɣli'ko ne'ro (both neuter)
> lit "sweet water"
> vs
> «Αλμυρό νερό»
> almi'ro ne'ro (both neuter)
> lit. "salty water"


Just wanted to add that often in wells, water is somewhat salty due to a mixture of seawater and fresh water:
Brackish water: «Γλυφό νερό» (ɣli'fo ne'ro, both neuter)


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## Lars H

Hej

The Swedish terms are quite the same as Finnish, as described by Hakro

We also say "sweet water" _sötvatten_ = as opposed to salty or brackish water.

But also _sjövatten_ = lake water.

_Färskvatten_ or _dricksvatten_ both mean water suitable to drink.


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## Saluton

Russian: *пресная вода* (pr*e*snaya vod*a*). This is not "sweet water": when the adjective *пресный* is used outside of this context, it means "tasteless" (when talking about food) or "insipid" (when used figuratively).


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## rochelimit

If anyone interested in Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language)...

We used *air tawar*, "tasteless water"
If we order a tea, we would say either _*teh tawar*, _"tasteless tea", for a sugarless tea; or _*teh manis, *_"sweet tea", for a tea with sugar.

For saltwater, we generally used *air laut, *"sea water"; or sometimes _*air asin, *_"salty water", for such cases such as the Dead Sea which is technically not a sea.
Indonesian for salty is _asin, _referring to the taste. Indonesian for salt is *garam, *referring to the mineral.

"fresh water" is literally *air segar, *_segar _usually refers to something refreshing, such as fresh air, etc. But we don't use "air segar" for fresh water...

Indonesian language are more or less the same as the Chinese. Probably "tasteless" is more to the East, while "sweet" is more to the West, with the exception of English. Interesting, I guess English is lonely afterall


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## Nizo

In Esperanto, we use *nesala/sensala* (saltless) *akvo* or *dolĉa* (sweet) *akvo*.


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