How to say “choose” in 36 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 Basque, where erabaki is the 257th most used word.
- Albanian zgjedhur to choose #821
- Arabic نخب to choose, select #952
- Armenian ընտրել to choose #625
- Basque erabaki to decide, to choose #257
- Bengali বাছা to choose, select, pick #670
- Bosnian izabrati to choose, select #2,436
- Catalan triar to pick, to decide, to choose #1,059
- Chinese 選擇 to choose; to select; to pick; to make a… #1,170
- Croatian izabrati to choose, select #2,165
- Czech vybrat to select, to choose #1,367
- Danish vælge to choose #1,010
- Dutch uitzoeken to pick out, to choose, to select #1,328
- English decided To resolve; to choose, determine, or settle #729
- Esperanto elektis to choose, elect #760
- Estonian vali to choose, to pick, to select #1,149
- Finnish valita to choose, select #1,173
- French choisi to choose #1,020
- Galician escoller to choose; to select #1,595
- Georgian ავირჩევ to choose #1,158
- German wählen to choose, to select #2,034
- Hebrew בחר to choose, to opt, to select #1,532
- Icelandic velja to choose, to select #607
- Indonesian memilih to choose #466
- Italian scelto to choose #1,066
- Latvian izvēlēties to choose #1,516
- Malay pilih to choose #604
- Norwegian velge to choose #975
- Polish wybrać to choose #1,681
- Portuguese escolha to choose #769
- Romanian ales to choose, to select #397
- Russian выбрать to choose, to select, to pick out #1,917
- Slovak voliť to choose, to select #2,107
- Slovenian izbrati to choose, to pick #926
- Spanish elegir to choose #1,828
- Swedish välja to choose #965
- Vietnamese chọn to choose; to select; to pick #378
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.