Do Other Languages Use ‘Haha’ for Laughter?

Type “haha” into a message, and any English-speaking recipient will instantly get that it stands in for laughter. But send that same message to someone whose first language is Russian, Thai, or Japanese, and they might look at it blankly — not because they don’t understand the concept of laughing (they probably laugh vocally in a very similar way, at least enough for us to recognize the sound) but because their own way of expressing laughter in written form looks very different. The sound itself may be almost universal — a laugh is a laugh in any country — but the letters used to represent it are entirely shaped by the phonetics, alphabets and quirks of each individual language.

The key to understanding why laughter is written differently across languages has a lot to do with onomatopoeia — words that imitate the sounds they describe. When an English speaker writes “haha,” they are trying to render the sound of a laugh phonetically, using the letters available in their alphabet. Speakers of other languages do exactly the same thing but using their own alphabets and their own phonetic rules. The result is that the same underlying sound of human laughter is written differently depending on which letters in a given language come closest to representing it.

In Spanish, the letter “j” sounds similar to the English “h,” but it can vary across different regions — in some countries the sound is soft and breathy, while in others it’s harsher and more similar to the “ch” in the Scottish word “loch.” Spanish speakers write laughter as jajaja, which therefore sounds very similar to the English “hahaha.” Spanish also has variations: Jejeje could suggest playfulness or knowing amusement, while jijiji might imply mischievous or sneaky laughter (depending largely on context). 

Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet, in which the letter “х” (pronounced like “kh” or “h”) is the closest equivalent to the English “h.” So хахаха is simply “hahaha” written in Cyrillic. But Russian internet culture also produced one of the most distinctive laughter conventions anywhere: the closing parenthesis. In Russian digital communication, a single ) indicates a smile (or simple politeness), while a string of them — ))))) — represents escalating laughter. The more brackets, the harder someone is laughing.

Greek has the same logic as Russian. The letter “χ” (chi) produces a sound close to the English “h” but harsher, so Greek laughter is written as χαχαχα — again, phonetically very similar to “hahaha,” just rendered in the Greek alphabet. Greek digital laughter also has some alternatives, such as χοχο, which suggests sarcastic humor, and χα0χα0χα0, which is villainous laughter. 

In Japan, the most common form of writing laughter is a “w” or a string of “w” letters — wwww — which derives from the Japanese word warai (笑う), meaning “laughter.” The “w” is simply the first letter of that word written in the Latin alphabet, and stacking them indicates increasing hilarity. 

Korean uses two main forms of written laughter. ㅋㅋㅋ uses the Korean consonant ㅋ (keu), which produces a sound similar to the laughing “ha.” Then there’s ㅎㅎㅎ, which uses the consonant ㅎ (hee-eut), which is closer to the English “h” — making it the more direct phonetic equivalent of “haha” or “heh-heh” (a gentle chuckle). As in Japanese, more repetitions of the character indicate stronger laughter.

Thai has a number of ways to express laughter in written form. One common option, used in novels and newspapers, is to use use ฮ่าๆ, which would be the equivalent of writing “haha.” Then there’s a popular alternative used on social media: the numeral 5. In Thai, the number five is pronounced as “hah,” making “555” phonetically equivalent to “hahaha.”

Brazilian internet culture produced two distinct laughter conventions. First, there’s kkkkk. This may seem counterintuitive to English speakers, but in Brazilian Portuguese the letter “k” is pronounced “kah” — so a string of them sounds like a cackling laugh. Then there’s rsrsrs, which comes from the Portuguese word risos, meaning “laughter.” You’ll also see a hybrid version on social media in the form of krkrkrkrkr. 

In Arabic, the sound or act of laughing is ضَحِك.  But to express this in a form more similar to “hahaha,” Arabic uses a similar phonetic logic seen elsewhere. The most common way to type laughter in Arabic is to use the letter “ه” (which makes the “h” sound). Typing this in a row — ههههههه — captures a similar sound to “hahaha.”

While “hahaha” is used in Indonesia, it’s considered quite formal — especially among the youth and members of the gaming community. Instead, laughter is written as wkwkwk. This makes sense phonetically, as the “wk” combination, repeated, approximates the sound of a rapid, staccato laugh (or, in many instances, a giggle or chuckle) as it sounds in Indonesian. It has become so embedded in Indonesian internet culture that pretty much everyone now uses it, and it’s considered the cooler way of laughing online.