"well" in seven languages
Meaningwell
Spanish
bien
/bjen/
inherited
French
bien
/bjɛ̃/
inherited
Italian
bene
/ˈbɛne/
inherited
Without the expected ie diphthong, probably because the word was so often unstressed.
Portuguese
bem
/bẽj/
inherited
Romanian
bine
/ˈbine/
inherited
Catalan
bé
/be/
inherited
Catalan drops the final -n: BENE → bé.
English
well
/wɛl/
native English · Old English wel
English → ItalianwellbeneNot relatedDifferent sources — learn this one fresh. But English has relatives: benefit, benevolent, benediction.What English and Italian share
The Latin ancestor
BENE‘well’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
Spanish and French spell it identically and break the open e into ie; only the French nasal tells them apart.
English relatives: benefit, benevolent, benediction
Sound laws at work
Learn it
In a sentence
- esEstoy bien, gracias.
- frJe vais bien, merci.
- itSto bene, grazie.
- ptEstou bem, obrigado.
- roSunt bine, mulțumesc.
- caEstic bé, gràcies.
- enI'm fine, thanks.