# Ufo



## Cracker Jack

Hello. I would like to know how UFO (*U*nidentified *F*lying *O*bject) is called in different languages. Usually it takes the form of a flying saucer and comes from outer space and is being conducted by aliens. 

Please provide the abbrevation and what it stands for. If in your language character(s) exist(s), please provide the pronunciation. Thanks a lot.


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## alby

Hi,
In Croatian is *NLO *(*N*eidentificirani *L*eteći *O*bjekti).
Pronunciation: *N *(like in Norway), *L *(like in Lord), *O *(like in UFO)

Nataša


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## instantREILLY

The most popular Japanese term is interesting, in that it is a pronunciation of the English acronym...

ユーフォー (yuufoo)

Another, all-Japanese way of saying it could be...

未確認飛行物体 (mikakunin hikou buttai) - A literal equivalent to the English term.

"Space ship" is...

宇宙船 (uchuusen)


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## diegodbs

En español:

OVNI = Objeto Volante No Identificado.

Pronunciation: /ovni/


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## beatrizg

In Spanish (at least in Colombia) we say:
*OVNI *(objeto volador no identificado)

In Greece they say:
*UFO*


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## DearPrudence

In French, very similar to Spanish:
*OVNI*: Objet Volant Non Identifié
pronunced like: of nee


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## Outsider

in Portuguese, also:

*OVNI*: objecto voador não identificado


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## amikama

Hebrew:

*עב"ם* (_'abam_) - acronym of עצם בלתי מזוהה (literally "unidentified object").


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## alitza

In Romanian:

OZN - *O*biect (Object) *Z*burator (Flying)  *N*eidentificat (Unidentified)


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## Whodunit

In German:

*U*nbekanntes *F*lug*o*bjekt = UFO


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## betulina

In Catalan it's like in Spanish, French, and Portuguese:

OVNI - Objecte Volador No Identificat


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## MingRaymond

It is 不明飛行物體 (bu4ming2 fei1xing2 wu4ti3)  in Chinese. It is a literal equivalent to the English term.


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## Josh_

In Arabic:

*جسم طائر غير محدد
*(gism Taa'ir gheer muhaddad)
literal equivalent of the English term
*
صحن طائر
*(saHn Taa'ir)
flying saucer


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## tigger_uhuhu

diegodbs said:
			
		

> En español:
> OVNI = Objeto Volante No Identificado.
> Pronunciation: /ovni/


In Mexico
OVNI= Objeto *volador* no identificado 
Cheers
Tigger UBO (Unidentified Bouncy Object)


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## Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!

In Czech, we use the acronym UFO, pronounced kind of like "oo-faw" for you englishists.  It's been domesticated to such an extent that "ufon" or "ufoun", plural "ufo(u)ni" exists as a slang term meaning alien.

Other than that, we say "neidentifikované létající objekty", but don't actually use the acronym NLO.


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## Suane

In Slovakia = the same as in Czech rep.


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## macta123

In Hindi/Urdu - Udan Tashtari


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## Annwn

In Swedish, it´s commonly said "Ufo" from the english term, but most of the time, ufo´s are refered to as "flygande tefat", a direct translation from flying saucer.


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## Honour

In Turkish we use say _ufo (oo fau)_ too but there is also another word _uçan daire _which means _flying disk._


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## elroy

Small correction.  What you had was the colloquial pronunciation. 



			
				Josh Adkins said:
			
		

> In Arabic:
> 
> *جسم طائر غير محدد*
> (gism Taa'ir gh*ay*r muhaddad)
> literal equivalent of the English term
> 
> *صحن طائر*
> (saHn Taa'ir)
> flying saucer


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## Robinvn

In Dutch it's called 'UFO' also. The abbreviation is like in English.


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## winnie

Here in Italy we call it UFO as well, or if one have a lot of time to spend about it: oggetto volante non identificato (which is the translation of UFO)


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## La-Turkish-Chiiqa

In Turkish; Uzaylı "or" Ufo


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## Knuð

In Norwegian the abbreviation is the same, but the full phrase is "uidentifisert flyvende objekt".


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## diamania

You can also say in dutch: Ongeidentificeerd vliegend object ( it's the translation) But as robinvn already said you can also say : ufo


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## Etcetera

In Russian: НЛО (NLO), which stands for Неопознанный летающий объект (neopoznannyj letayuschij ob'ekt). And this is translation from English.


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## stargazer

Hey

In Slovenian we say NLP which stands for NEZNANI LETEČI PREDMET; a literal translation would be "unknown flying object".


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## linguist786

MingRaymond said:
			
		

> It is 不明飛行物體 (bu4ming2 fei1xing2 wu4ti3) in Chinese. It is a literal equivalent to the English term.


Would it not be: 不明飞行物 

? or is that the same thing? (or is it wrong lol?)


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## avalon2004

*Greek*
As an alternative to the English UFO, the acronym *ΑΤΙΑ* also exists which stands for "*Αγνώστου Ταυτότητας Ιπταμένο Αντικείμενο*", literally meaning "Flying Object of Unknown Identity"


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## Maja

In Serbian:
*NLO *- *N*eidentifikovani *L*eteći *O*bjekat (*Н*еидентификовани *Л*етећи *О*бјекат).


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## Flaminius

*In Japanese:*

未確認飛行物体 mi-kakunin hikō buttai or UFO (read yūfō).

Almost the same with the Chinese one but for Jp. 未確認 vs. Ch. 不明.  In Japanese 不明 means unidentified as well but it renders awkward air when used attributively.

Flaminius


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## Abbassupreme

According to wikipedia (and I have no idea if this is actually correct, what with me having to guess where the vowels go in the word), the Persian term, transliterated, is: "shi ye naashenaas e parandeh".  This is far too literal Persian for me to understand what that ACTUALLY means, but I'm pretty sure "naashenaas" means "unidentifiable" and parandeh means "bird".  Could mean "flying" in this context, so "shi" would probably mean something like "object".


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## Ilmo

*Finnish:*
The English acronym has converted to a normal word "ufo" in the present day Finnish.
The term "lentävä lautanen" (=flying saucer) is still in use.
There is no Finnish acronyt for Unidentified Flying Object in use.
The word ufo is declinated like any other Finnish noun.
.


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## Vagabond

avalon2004 said:


> *Greek*
> As an alternative to the English UFO, the acronym *ΑΤΙΑ* also exists which stands for "*Αγνώστου Ταυτότητας Ιπταμένο Αντικείμενο*", literally meaning "Flying Object of Unknown Identity"


Just to add that "flying saucer" (also used quite a bit) would be *ιπτάμενος δίσκος* (iptamenos diskos).


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## coconutpalm

不明飞行物bu4 ming2 fei1 xing2 wu4 is its official name. Haven't heard of 不明飞行物体. However, it might be different in Hongkong from here in mainland.
飞碟fei1 die2 is most commonly known.


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## DrWatson

Ilmo said:


> *Finnish:*
> The English acronym has converted to a normal word "ufo" in the present day Finnish.
> The term "lentävä lautanen" (=flying saucer) is still in use.
> There is no Finnish acronyt for Unidentified Flying Object in use.
> The word ufo is declinated like any other Finnish noun.
> .



Actually, even though there's no acronym in use, there's an expression "*tunnistamaton lentävä esine*" which is a literal translation of the words "unidentified flying object". However, it's not very common, at least in colloquial language.


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## Chazzwozzer

La-Turkish-Chiiqa said:


> In Turkish; Uzaylı "or" Ufo


*"Uzaylı"* is "alien", not *"UFO."
*


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## karuna

Latvian:
NLO – neindentificēts lidojošais objekts


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## irene.acler

winnie said:


> Here in Italy we call it UFO as well, or if one have a lot of time to spend about it: oggetto volante non identificato (which is the translation of UFO)



I would add that we use the English acronim "UFO" and not "OVNI", as it should be according to the beginning of the Italian words.


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## mimi2

In Vietnamese*: đĩa bay*


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## Thomas1

In Polish we use the English abbrevation UFO.

Tom


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## awanzi

irene.acler said:


> I would add that we use the English acronim "UFO" and not "OVNI", as it should be according to the beginning of the Italian words.


 

And as it is in Spanish and French... 
Then I'd like to say that we don't pronounce U.F.O. as three different letters (as it should be), but we say Ufo (like the name "Ugo").


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## SonicChao

Esperanto:

NIFO (Neidentebla Fluganta Objekto)


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## spakh

tanımlanamayan uçan cisim/nesne is equilavent of UFO in Turkish. Altough TDK dictionary doesn't accept ufo or UFO, both are commonly used.


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## suslik

In Estonia we say ufo too, also "tulnukas"


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## Wandene

In lithuanian it would be *NSO* (*N*eatpažintas *S*kraidantis *O*bjektas)


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## Chazzwozzer

Wandene said:


> In Lithuanian it would be *NSO* (*N*eatpažintas *S*kraidantis *O*bjektas)


So you never say *UFO *in Lithuanian?


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## Hakro

suslik said:


> In Estonia we say ufo too, also "tulnukas"


Tulnukas, isn't it "alien"?


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## Qcumber

Cracker Jack said:


> Hello. I would like to know how UFO (*U*nidentified *F*lying *O*bject) is called in different languages. Usually it takes the form of a flying saucer and comes from outer space and is being conducted by aliens.


And how do you say it in Tagalog?


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## samanthalee

coconutpalm said:


> 不明飞行物bu4 ming2 fei1 xing2 wu4 is its official name. Haven't heard of 不明飞行物体. However, it might be different in Hongkong from here in mainland.
> 飞碟fei1 die2 is most commonly known.


 
飞碟fei1 die2 would be refering to Flying Saucer, not exactly UFO.

不明飞行物体 bu4 ming2 fei1 xing2 wu4 ti3 is the official name used in Singapore

I remember hearing 幽浮 you1 fu2 being used too...which I had confused with 幽碟 when i was in Shanghai...


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## deine

Chazzwozzer said:


> So you never say *UFO *in Lithuanian?


 
No, we don't use this one. But we use word "*ufo*nautas" which means -alien


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## mcibor

Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li! said:


> In Czech, we use the acronym UFO, pronounced kind of like "oo-faw" for you englishists.  It's been domesticated to such an extent that "ufon" or "ufoun", plural "ufo(u)ni" exists as a slang term meaning alien.
> 
> Other than that, we say "neidentifikované létající objekty", but don't actually use the acronym NLO.



Polish:
To complete the Thomas's answer, acronym is UFO pronounced oo-faw , the official term is
Niezidentyfikowany Obiekt Latający (acronym NOL is never used).
ufoludek - alien (cute)
obcy - alien (film)
(latający) spodek - flying saucer, which is a direct translation from English
porwanie przez obcych - abduction (you have to add: _przez obcych_ - by aliens, because porwanie means more kidnapping than abduction)

Regards
Michał


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## LaDanseuse

In Norwegian it is:

UFO ( *U*identifisert *f*lygende *o*bjekt)


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## Cracker Jack

Qcumber said:


> And how do you say it in Tagalog?


 

Q we also use the English abbreviations UFO.  It is also expressed this way in other languages and dialects.


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## samanthalee

mcibor said:


> Polish:acronym is UFO pronounced oo-faw ,


It's the same in Mandarin. We pronounce it as You Fu ( 幽浮 ) which sounds a bit like "youthful".


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## Qcumber

Cracker Jack said:


> Q we also use the English abbreviations UFO. It is also expressed this way in other languages and dialects.


You write it UFO. How does the average Tagalog pronounce it?


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## mylasalle

I would agree with Cracker Jack. I'm not aware of any colloquial equivalent of UFO. I assume people simply borrowed it into the Tagalog language with a similar pronunciation. Word borrowings are indeed very prevalent in everyday Tagalog. 

I believe another acceptable version is "space ship." Pronounced the same way.


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## coconutpalm

samanthalee said:


> It's the same in Mandarin. We pronounce it as You Fu ( 幽浮 ) which sounds a bit like "youthful".


 
I remember seeing it too, but it's old translation, old-fashioned.


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## Qcumber

mylasalle said:


> I assume people simply borrowed it into the Tagalog language with a similar pronunciation.


OK. The next time I meet a Filipino, I'll ask him to read "UFO", and take down his pronunciation in phonetics.


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## Mac_Linguist

In Macedonian:

*НЛО* (*Н*еидентификуван *л*етечки *о*бјект).


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## Nizo

In *Esperanto*, we say _nifo_, which came from _neidentigita fluganta objekto_ (unidentified flying object).  While many languages use a derivitive of the English _ufology_ for the study of UFOs, Esperanto calls this field _nifologio_.


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