How to say “action” in 46 languages
Every one of these is a word that turns up in ordinary speech, not a dictionary curiosity — the number beside it is where it ranks in that language.
It is commonest in Tagalog, where sa is the 2nd most used word.
- Afrikaans aktiveer to activate, put into action #2,235
- Albanian veprim #1,525
- Armenian բերում the action of bringing, fetching #433
- Bengali কর্ম deed, action, work #1,797
- Bosnian čin action, act, deed #2,002
- Bulgarian действие #1,562
- Catalan acció #1,613
- Chinese 行事 to take action; to act #1,273
- Croatian čin action, act, deed #1,896
- Czech činu action, act, deed #1,312
- Dutch stoppen an action of stopping, cessation #430
- English would Used to, did repeatedly, habitually;… #86
- Esperanto stultaĵo stupid action; stupidity #1,831
- Estonian tegu action, deed, doing #689
- Finnish käsin Indicates source of action #2,291
- French coup sound of the action #289
- Galician acción #766
- Georgian ვერ Used to negate an action that one is unable… #33
- German wieder again; indicates that the action taking place… #95
- Greek δράση #1,810
- Hebrew פעולה an action, a move #772
- Hindi कार्रवाई operation, action #1,440
- Hungarian tettek action, act, deed #1,896
- Indonesian melakukan to do, to perform, to take action #79
- Italian processo trial, action, lawsuit, suit, proceedings #1,171
- Korean 인형 doll, puppet, action figure, any small human… #1,094
- Latvian jau used to indicate that an action or event has… #50
- Lithuanian veiksmas act, action #1,511
- Macedonian акција #1,037
- Malay melakukan to do, to perform, to take action #174
- Malayalam പ്രവൃത്തി act, action #1,290
- Persian عمل #424
- Polish akcji action, mission, campaign, operation #1,954
- Romanian plimbare the action of walking #1,213
- Russian по used broadly to indicate action, typically… #43
- Serbian čin action, act, deed #1,903
- Slovak akcia #1,309
- Slovenian dejanje action, act #787
- Spanish acción action, act, deed #1,221
- Swedish fungerar function; to be in action #670
- Tagalog sa the recipient or beneficiary of an action:… #2
- Tamil செய்தி act, deed, action #222
- Telugu కర్మ act, deed, action #1,287
- Turkish hareket #445
- Urdu کام task, action, work #65
- Vietnamese đã having completed this action, perfect aspect #9
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.