How to say “fall” in 49 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 English, where keep is the 179th most used word.
- Afrikaans val to fall #309
- Albanian bie to fall #504
- Arabic وقع to fall down, to fall #884
- Armenian ընկնել to fall #778
- Basque jausi to fall #1,114
- Bengali ফেলা to drop, to let fall #566
- Bosnian pasti to fall #1,834
- Bulgarian падна to fall, to drop #1,154
- Catalan caure to fall #791
- Chinese 生病 to fall ill; to catch a disease; to contract… #621
- Croatian pasti to fall #1,747
- Czech vypadnout to fall out #1,585
- Danish fald to fall #617
- Dutch vallen a fall #527
- English keep To continue in; to not intermit or fall from;… #179
- Esperanto falis to fall #638
- Estonian sajab to fall #1,906
- Finnish pudota to fall; to fall down, fall off; to drop, slip #2,306
- French tomber to fall #479
- Galician caer to fall, fall off, fall down #769
- German fall to fall, to drop #345
- Greek έπεσε to fall, fall off, drop #813
- Hebrew נפל To fall: to be pulled downward by gravity #1,061
- Hindi गिर to fall, to tumble #383
- Hungarian esett to fall #1,257
- Icelandic datt to fall #439
- Indonesian tanggal to fall out #1,091
- Italian cadere to fall #1,773
- Lithuanian užmigti to go to sleep; to fall asleep #1,285
- Macedonian замолчи to fall silent #428
- Malay jatuh to fall; to drop #357
- Malayalam വീഴ്ത്തുക to make something fall #1,310
- Norwegian fall to fall #638
- Persian سقوط fall, falling, downfall #873
- Polish spadaj to fall #2,203
- Portuguese cair to fall; to fall down; to drop #923
- Romanian cădea to fall #2,412
- Serbian spasao to fall down #1,917
- Slovak zaspať to fall asleep #1,537
- Slovenian pasti to fall #913
- Spanish caer to fall #1,449
- Swedish fall to fall #337
- Tagalog bumagsak to fall #819
- Tamil துளி to drip, fall in drops, trickle down #658
- Telugu పాటు a fall #252
- Turkish düşen to fall, fall down #2,473
- Ukrainian дістатися to fall to one's share; to fall to one's lot #1,850
- Urdu اتار descent, fall #1,220
- Vietnamese thu autumn; fall #688
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.