How to say “hold” in 48 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 Dutch, where heb is the 24th most used word.
- Afrikaans hou to hold #75
- Albanian mbaj to hold #310
- Arabic تمسك to hold on, hold fast, clutch #1,436
- Basque eutsi to hold on #260
- Bengali ধরা to hold #398
- Bosnian drži to hold, grasp #426
- Bulgarian държа to hold, to have a grip of #728
- Catalan agafar to take, hold #509
- Chinese 拿到 to take; to get hold of; to get; to attain #220
- Croatian drži to hold, grasp #437
- Czech drž to hold #626
- Danish hold to hold #131
- Dutch heb to have, to possess, own, hold #24
- English fix To attach; to affix; to hold in place or at a… #912
- Esperanto tenu to hold, to keep #436
- Estonian pean to keep, to hold #92
- Finnish pitää to hold, grasp, grip #53
- French tiens to have; to hold #370
- Galician ten to hold, have #52
- German halten to hold #327
- Greek έχει to have/hold, in the sense of holding property #50
- Hebrew החזיק to hold, to grab #2,336
- Hindi पकड़ो to hold #745
- Hungarian fog to hold #80
- Icelandic held to hold #82
- Indonesian pegang to hold, grab; basic/imperative/informal of… #902
- Italian preso to take, hold, pick up, get #264
- Latvian turi to hold #815
- Lithuanian laikyti to hold, to keep #845
- Macedonian држи to hold, keep #290
- Malay pegang to hold, to grasp #494
- Malayalam വിട് to leave something, release hold #169
- Norwegian hold to hold #168
- Polish trzymaj to hold #510
- Portuguese pegar to grab, hold #1,361
- Romanian păstra to keep, preserve, hold, maintain #1,594
- Russian держать to hold, to keep, to support #941
- Serbian drži to hold, grasp #413
- Slovak drž to hold #352
- Slovenian obdržati to keep, hold on, retain #767
- Spanish coger to take, catch, hold, to get, to seize #1,518
- Swedish håll to hold #197
- Tagalog teka wait a moment!; hold on for a while! #100
- Telugu పట్టు to hold, grip, grasp, catch, seize #919
- Turkish tut to hold; to take hold of; to grip; to grab #646
- Ukrainian тримати to hold #1,013
- Urdu پکڑنا to hold #1,743
- Vietnamese giữ to keep; to hold and maintain as one's own #259
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.