How to say “check” in 34 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 Czech, where podívej is the 239th most used word.
- Arabic حد to prevent, to restrain, to check, to hinder #534
- Bosnian provjeriti to check, confirm #1,295
- Catalan control check, inspection #659
- Chinese 支票 cheque; check #974
- Croatian provjeriti to check, confirm #853
- Czech podívej to look, take a look, check out #239
- Danish tjek #1,082
- Dutch controleren to check #1,334
- English arrest A check; a stop; an act or instance of… #1,094
- Esperanto kontrolu to check; to check up; to supervise; to verify #1,049
- Estonian kontrollida to check, to verify #924
- Finnish merkitsee to mark, check off, tick off, tag, stamp,… #2,003
- French contrôle to check or examine #781
- German überprüfen to check, to verify #1,659
- Greek έλεγχο control, check, audit #786
- Icelandic athuga to look, to check #585
- Indonesian memeriksa to examine, to check #637
- Italian controllo to check, verify, inspect, examine #588
- Korean 확인 check; confirmation; verification; affirmation #556
- Macedonian провери to check, verify #659
- Malay uji to test, to check #1,636
- Norwegian sjekke to check #754
- Persian بررسی check; verification #1,216
- Polish sprawdzić to check, to check up #755
- Portuguese cheque cheque, check #2,388
- Romanian verifica to verify, to check #1,512
- Russian проверить to examine, to check, to control, to verify,… #992
- Serbian provjeriti to check, confirm #2,278
- Swedish kontrollera to check #1,491
- Tagalog tsek check mark #2,029
- Turkish kontrol control, check #263
- Ukrainian перевірити to check, to verify, to test #1,310
- Urdu کنٹرول check, inspection #509
- Vietnamese kiểm to check; to verify #368
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.