How to say “catch” in 33 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 Chinese, where 看到 is the 19th most used word.
- Arabic أدرك to reach, catch up with, overcome, overtake #856
- Bulgarian стигна to catch up with, to overtake #1,208
- Catalan atrapat to capture, to catch #1,681
- Chinese 看到 to catch sight of; to see #19
- Czech chytit to catch #1,496
- Danish fange to catch, to capture #835
- Dutch gevangen to catch #1,278
- English miss To fail to hit, catch, grasp, etc #276
- Esperanto kaptu to catch, to capture #670
- Estonian püüdma to catch, to capture #1,936
- Galician acadar to reach; to grab; to catch #1,727
- German erwischt to catch #1,126
- Hebrew תפס to catch #1,476
- Icelandic loka latch, catch, bolt #631
- Italian trappola trap, snare, catch #2,079
- Korean 탄 a bird net used to catch birds #882
- Latvian ķer to catch #1,738
- Lithuanian pagauti to catch #1,544
- Macedonian фати to catch #437
- Malay nampak to see; to catch sight of; to perceive… #122
- Malayalam പിടിക്ക് #203
- Norwegian fanget to catch, to capture #913
- Polish zobaczyć to see; to catch sight of, to glimpse #256
- Romanian ajuns to overtake, to catch up #261
- Russian увидеть to see, to catch sight of, to notice #428
- Slovak chytať to catch #2,049
- Slovenian ujeli to catch #500
- Spanish coger to take, catch, hold, to get, to seize #1,518
- Swedish fånga to catch #1,292
- Tagalog mahuli to be able to catch someone or something #975
- Tamil பிடி to catch, grasp, seize, clutch #327
- Turkish yakalamak to catch, apprehend #1,932
- Vietnamese bắt to seize; to catch #132
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.