Speak of the devil is a fascinating idiom of itself. It is used when an object of discussion unexpectedly becomes present during the conversation. It’s even more fascinating to know how other languages express the same occurrence. We have asked our multilingual followers at The Language Nerds about the equivalent of speak of the devil in the different languages they speak and they were generous enough to provide very insightful responses that we compiled for you here and we hope they stimulate your curiosity.
French
Speak of the wolf and he’s out of the woods.
Speak of the wolf, and there is its tail.
Arabic
When you mention the cat, it comes out jumping.
Scottish
Shout shite and it comes flying.
Swedish
When you speak of the trolls, they are standing in the hallway.
Russian
Remember the shit, and here it comes!
Spanish
Speak of the King of Rome.
German
Talk about the Devil, see a pair of horns growing.
Hebrew
It’s a pity we didn’t speak about the Messiah.
Greek
Speak of the donkey.
Hungarian
Don’t paint the devil on the wall, or it will manifest.
Japanese
Speak of the devil and its shadow will appear.
Italian
Speak of the devil and its horns shall appear.
Norwegian
Speak of the sun, and it is shining.
Moroccan Arabic
Mention the wolf and prepare a bat.
Indonesian
You shall have a long life.
Bosnian
We were speaking about the wolf and the wolf appeared at the door!
Czech
Speak of the wolf.
Finnish
When the evil is mentioned, it appears.
Polish
Speak of the wolf and here it is.
Thai
Die Hard!
Yiddish
If one speaks of the angel, the priest comes.
Bulgarian
Speak of the wolf and he will appear near the sheep.
Korean
Even a tiger appears when he is spoken about.
Turkish
Speak of the dog and make your stick ready!
Romanian
You speak about the wolf and it is right at the door.
Chinese
Speak of Cao Cao and he’ll arrive.
Maltese
Look what the sea has brought up
The Hebrew version is actually this: speak of the donkey.
In Swiss French, we only say “quand on parle du loup” (speak of the wolf). I have never heard those versions with a second part to the phrase!
In Spanish, we also say this rhyme: *hablando de Roma, el burro se asoma
*Speaking of Rome, the donkey appears
And also in persian:
Look, there’s the legitimate (person)