How to say “hide” in 35 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 ezkutatu is the 450th most used word.
- Afrikaans vel A skin, a hide #1,075
- Albanian fshehur to hide #609
- Arabic سير strap, strip of hide, skin thong #1,589
- Basque ezkutatu to hide, conceal #450
- Bengali লুকানো to hide #1,130
- Bosnian krije to hide, conceal #1,777
- Catalan amagar to hide, to conceal #1,457
- Chinese 躲避 to avoid; to dodge; to hide oneself; to elude #2,208
- Croatian sakriti to hide, conceal #1,702
- Czech schovat to hide #2,250
- Danish gemmer to hide, conceal #1,255
- Dutch verbergen to hide #1,379
- Esperanto kaŝis to hide, to conceal #1,077
- French cacher to hide #1,040
- German verstecken hide and seek #1,284
- Hindi छिपा to hide, be hidden #1,248
- Icelandic fela to hide, to conceal #750
- Indonesian menyembunyikan to hide #1,056
- Italian nascosto to hide, to conceal #1,326
- Latvian slēpj to hide, to conceal so that others cannot see… #2,498
- Lithuanian slėptis to hide #1,614
- Macedonian крие to hide, conceal #1,155
- Malay simpan to hide #592
- Norwegian gjemme to conceal or hide #1,485
- Polish ukryć to hide, to conceal #2,118
- Portuguese esconder to hide #1,142
- Romanian ascuns to hide, to conceal #953
- Russian закрыть to cover, to hide #2,442
- Serbian krije to hide, conceal #1,695
- Slovenian skriti to hide #697
- Swedish gömmer to hide, to conceal #1,460
- Tagalog itago to hide; to conceal #1,011
- Tamil மறை to hide, be hidden #1,045
- Telugu దాచు to hide, conceal #1,144
- Vietnamese trốn to hide oneself #566
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.