How to say “hold” in 48 different 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.
- держать[dʲɪrˈʐatʲ] Russian
- पकड़ो/pək.ɽoː/ Hindi
- החזיק/heχ(e)ˈzik/ Hebrew
- ধরা/dʱɔ.ra/ Bengali
- పట్టు/paʈːu/ Telugu
- پکڑنا/pə.kəɽ.nɑː/ Urdu
“hold” in German: halten · Russian: держать · Hindi: पकड़ो · Turkish: tut
It is commonest in Galician, where ten is the 52nd most used word.
Hold in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans hou/ɦœu/ to hold #75
- Albanian mbaj/mbaj/ to hold #310
- Arabic تمسك/tamassaka/ to hold on, hold fast, clutch #1,436
- Basque eutsi/eu̯t͡s̺i/ to hold on #260
- Bengali ধরা/dʱɔ.ra/ to hold #398
- Bosnian drži/ˈdrʒi/ to hold, grasp #426
- Bulgarian държа[dɐrˈʒɤ̟] to hold, to have a grip of #728
- Catalan agafar[ə.ɣəˈfa] to take, hold #509
- Chinese 拿到/nä³⁵ tɑʊ̯⁵¹/ to take; to get hold of; to get; to attain #220
- Croatian drži/ˈdrʒi/ to hold, grasp #437
- Czech drž[ˈdr̩ʃ] to hold #626
- Danish hold[ˈhʌlˀ] to hold #131
- Dutch heb/ɦɛp/ to have, to possess, own, hold #24
- English fix/fɪks/ To attach; to affix; to hold in place or at a… #912
- Esperanto tenu/ˈtenu/ to hold, to keep #436
- Estonian pean/peɑ̯n/ to keep, to hold #92
- Finnish pitää/ˈpitæːˣ/ to hold, grasp, grip #53
- French tiens/tjɛ̃/ to have; to hold #370
- Galician ten/ˈtɛŋ/ to hold, have #52
- German halten/ˈhaltn̩/ to hold #327
- Greek έχει/ˈe.çi/ to have/hold, in the sense of holding property #50
- Hebrew החזיק/heχ(e)ˈzik/ to hold, to grab #2,336
- Hindi पकड़ो/pək.ɽoː/ to hold #745
- Hungarian fog[ˈfoɡ] to hold #80
- Icelandic held[ˈhɛlt] to hold #82
- Indonesian pegang/pəˈɡaŋ/ to hold, grab; basic/imperative/informal of… #902
- Italian preso/ˈpre.zo/ to take, hold, pick up, get #264
- Latvian turi/ˈturi/ to hold #815
- Lithuanian laikyti[lɐɪ¹ˈkʲiːtʲɪ] to hold, to keep #845
- Macedonian држи[ˈdr̩ʒi] to hold, keep #290
- Malay pegang/pəˈɡaŋ/ to hold, to grasp #494
- Malayalam വിട്/ʋiʈɨ/ to leave something, release hold #169
- Norwegian hold/ˈhɔl/ to hold #168
- Polish trzymaj/ˈtʂɘ.maj/ to hold #510
- Portuguese pegar/peˈɡa(ʁ)/ to grab, hold #1,361
- Romanian păstra/pəsˈtra/ to keep, preserve, hold, maintain #1,594
- Russian держать[dʲɪrˈʐatʲ] to hold, to keep, to support #941
- Serbian drži/ˈdrʒi/ to hold, grasp #413
- Slovak drž/dr̩ʃ/ to hold #352
- Slovenian obdržati/ɔbdərˈʒaːti/ to keep, hold on, retain #767
- Spanish coger/koˈxeɾ/ to take, catch, hold, to get, to seize #1,518
- Swedish håll/hɔl/ to hold #197
- Tagalog teka/ˈteka/ wait a moment!; hold on for a while! #100
- Telugu పట్టు/paʈːu/ to hold, grip, grasp, catch, seize #919
- Turkish tut/tut/ to hold; to take hold of; to grip; to grab #646
- Ukrainian тримати[treˈmate] to hold #1,013
- Urdu پکڑنا/pə.kəɽ.nɑː/ to hold #1,743
- Vietnamese giữ[zɨ˦ˀ˥] to keep; to hold and maintain as one's own #259
The speaker reads the word in the voice the LangX app uses for that language — synthesised, not a recording of a native speaker, so treat it as a guide. A row without a button has no reading we are free to use, or none we trust, yet. Voices for Bengali (google (bn_BD), CC BY-SA 4.0), Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), CC BY-SA 4.0), Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 4.0), Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0) and Vietnamese (vais1000 (vi_VN), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.