How to say “lead” in 42 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 Slovenian, where vedel is the 134th most used word.
- Afrikaans lei to lead #469
- Albanian plumb #1,205
- Arabic رصاصة lead ball, bullet #1,148
- Armenian կապար #1,377
- Basque gidatu to guide, lead #563
- Bengali নেতৃত্ব the lead; leadership; direction; guidance;… #1,045
- Bosnian vodim to lead #1,117
- Bulgarian заведа to take somewhere, to lead, to take along #1,256
- Catalan pista track, trail, lead #1,216
- Chinese 造成 to bring about; to cause; to lead to #427
- Croatian voditi to lead #1,122
- Czech vede to lead #794
- Danish fører to lead, guide #916
- Dutch leiden to lead, to take the lead #984
- English clue Information which may lead one to a certain… #2,438
- Esperanto konduku to lead, to conduct #1,564
- Estonian viima to lead, to bring #870
- Finnish johtaa to lead, take, show someone the way to #1,002
- French laisses leash, lead #1,965
- Galician guía to guide, to lead #2,250
- German geführt to lead #2,462
- Hebrew הוביל To lead: to guide or conduct with the hand,… #2,210
- Hungarian vezet to lead, to guide #1,371
- Icelandic leiddi to lead #1,581
- Indonesian petunjuk information which may lead one to a certain… #945
- Italian guida to guide, lead, show, escort #1,367
- Latvian vadīt to lead, to conduct #1,476
- Lithuanian vesti to lead #973
- Macedonian водам to lead, guide #1,173
- Malay memimpin to lead, to conduct, to head, to guide, to… #1,236
- Norwegian leder to lead #813
- Persian سرنخ clue, lead #1,720
- Polish prowadzi to lead #1,350
- Romanian duc to carry, lead, take #218
- Russian вести to lead, to preside over, to chair #957
- Serbian vodim to lead #1,045
- Slovak viesť to lead #867
- Slovenian vedel to lead, to conduct #134
- Swedish ledde to lead; to guide, to conduct #1,942
- Telugu హీరో the male lead of a movie #1,023
- Ukrainian вести to lead, to conduct #943
- Vietnamese dẫn to lead to a place #471
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.