How to say “hand” in 51 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 Persian, where دست is the 50th most used word.
- Afrikaans hand A hand #260
- Albanian duart #270
- Arabic خمس the five digits of the hand #390
- Armenian ձեռք hand; arm #340
- Basque esku #326
- Bengali হাত #163
- Bosnian predati to deliver, hand over #1,769
- Bulgarian ръка #575
- Catalan mà #327
- Chinese 方面 aspect; side; hand; facet; respect #437
- Croatian predati to deliver, hand over #1,560
- Czech ruce #448
- Danish hånd #462
- Dutch hand a hand of a human, other simian or other… #263
- Esperanto manojn #463
- Estonian kätte #282
- Finnish kädet hand, arm; an upper limb of a human or… #900
- French main #369
- Galician man #276
- Georgian ხელი #249
- German übergeben to hand over #2,467
- Greek δε on the other hand used together with μεν #54
- Hebrew ימין the right hand #1,022
- Hindi हाथ #243
- Hungarian kézzel by hand #2,034
- Icelandic hendur #454
- Indonesian menyerahkan to hand over #1,130
- Italian mano #350
- Korean 그런데 but, however, on the other hand #138
- Latvian rokas hand, arm #279
- Lithuanian rankas hand; arm #293
- Malay tangan #211
- Malayalam കൈ #124
- Norwegian hendene a hand #574
- Persian دست #50
- Polish podaj to hand, to pass #1,492
- Portuguese mãos #374
- Romanian mâna #455
- Russian передать to hand over, to deliver, to give #1,580
- Serbian međutim however, on the other hand #1,822
- Slovak ruky hand, arm #289
- Slovenian rok hand, arm #442
- Spanish pasa to pass, to hand, to slip #158
- Swedish händer a hand #190
- Tagalog kunin to take something by the hand; to fetch; to… #173
- Tamil கை #329
- Telugu దాదాపు close at hand #230
- Turkish el #464
- Ukrainian рука #1,060
- Urdu ہاتھ #186
- Vietnamese tay #164
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.