How to say “hit” in 45 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 jo is the 152nd most used word.
- Afrikaans slaan hit, slap, beat, strike #435
- Albanian goditje hit, punch #779
- Arabic وجد to find, to hit upon, to come across #731
- Armenian զարկել to strike, hit, knock, tap #1,484
- Basque jo to hit, strike, punch #152
- Bengali আঘাত blow, strike, hit #302
- Bosnian udarac hit, punch, knock, whack #1,235
- Bulgarian удар hit, blow, clout, stroke, punch #850
- Catalan cop hit, blow, strike #201
- Chinese 打中 to hit a target #1,234
- Croatian udarac hit, punch, knock, whack #1,261
- Danish slags A hit, punch #294
- Dutch slaan to hit, to slap #856
- English miss To fail to hit, catch, grasp, etc #276
- Esperanto trafis to hit, strike #669
- Estonian lüüa to hit #898
- Finnish lyö to hit, strike, knock #1,718
- French frappé to hit, to strike, to bash #1,485
- Galician bates to hit; to strike #1,380
- German schlagen to beat; to hit; to knock; to strike; to… #1,065
- Greek χτύπησες to strike, knock, hit, beat #2,298
- Hebrew מכה an attack, an assault, a hit, a wound #939
- Hindi मार to beat, hit, strike, knock #171
- Hungarian ütött to hit, strike, beat, knock, slap, smack #1,983
- Icelandic drepa to beat, hit #171
- Indonesian pukul #699
- Korean 쳐 to hit, to beat, to strike, to slap, to pound #792
- Latvian sit to hit, to strike, to beat #1,234
- Lithuanian smūgis punch, hit #831
- Macedonian удри to hit, strike, punch #594
- Malay pukul to hit, to strike, to beat #365
- Malayalam ഇടി punch, hit #1,184
- Norwegian slå to beat, punch, hit, strike #371
- Persian بزن to beat, hit, strike #177
- Romanian lovit to hit; to strike #662
- Russian попасть to hit #1,218
- Serbian udarac hit, punch, knock, whack #1,247
- Slovak udrel to strike, to hit #1,019
- Slovenian udariti to hit, to strike #1,204
- Spanish golpe hit, blow, strike #1,251
- Swedish träffa to hit a target #266
- Turkish vur to hit, to strike, to pound, to beat #1,110
- Ukrainian удар blow, hit, strike, stroke #1,037
- Urdu چوٹ hit; blow; attack #459
- Vietnamese trúng to hit #1,266
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.