How to say “lead” in 42 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.
- вести[vʲɪˈsʲtʲi] Russian
- կապար/kɑˈpɑɾ/ Armenian
- নেতৃত্ব/net̪ɾit̪ːo/ Bengali
“lead” in German: geführt · Russian: вести
It is commonest in Slovenian, where vedel is the 134th most used word.
Lead in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans lei[lə̟i̯] to lead #469
- Albanian plumb/plumb/ #1,205
- Arabic رصاصة/ra.sˤaː.sˤa/ lead ball, bullet #1,148
- Armenian կապար/kɑˈpɑɾ/ #1,377
- Basque gidatu/ɡidatu/ to guide, lead #563
- Bengali নেতৃত্ব/net̪ɾit̪ːo/ the lead; leadership; direction; guidance;… #1,045
- Bosnian vodim/ˈvodɪm/ to lead #1,117
- Bulgarian заведа[zɐvɛˈdɤ] to take somewhere, to lead, to take along #1,256
- Catalan pista[ˈpis.tə] track, trail, lead #1,216
- Chinese 造成/t͡sɑʊ̯⁵¹ ʈ͡ʂʰɤŋ³⁵/ to bring about; to cause; to lead to #427
- Croatian voditi/ʋǒditi/ to lead #1,122
- Czech vede[ˈvɛdɛ] to lead #794
- Danish fører[ˈføːɐ] to lead, guide #916
- Dutch leiden/ˈlɛi̯də(n)/ to lead, to take the lead #984
- English clue/kluː/ Information which may lead one to a certain… #2,438
- Esperanto konduku/konˈduku/ to lead, to conduct #1,564
- Estonian viima/vˈiːmɑ/ to lead, to bring #870
- Finnish johtaa/ˈjohtɑːˣ/ to lead, take, show someone the way to #1,002
- French laisses/ˈlɛs/ leash, lead #1,965
- Galician guía/ˈɡia/ to guide, to lead #2,250
- German geführt/ɡəˈfyːɾt/ to lead #2,462
- Hebrew הוביל/hoˈvil/ To lead: to guide or conduct with the hand,… #2,210
- Hungarian vezet[ˈvɛzɛt] to lead, to guide #1,371
- Icelandic leiddi/ˈleitɪ/ to lead #1,581
- Indonesian petunjuk/pəˈtʊɲ.d͡ʒʊʔ/ information which may lead one to a certain… #945
- Italian guida/ˈɡwi.da/ to guide, lead, show, escort #1,367
- Latvian vadīt[ˈvadîːt] to lead, to conduct #1,476
- Lithuanian vesti/ˈʋʲɛsʲtʲɪ/ to lead #973
- Macedonian водам[ˈvɔdam] to lead, guide #1,173
- Malay memimpin/məˈmimpin/ to lead, to conduct, to head, to guide, to… #1,236
- Norwegian leder[ˈlêːdə̌ɾ] to lead #813
- Persian سرنخ[sæɹ.nǽx] clue, lead #1,720
- Polish prowadzi/prɔˈva.d͡ʑi/ to lead #1,350
- Romanian duc/ˈduk/ to carry, lead, take #218
- Russian вести[vʲɪˈsʲtʲi] to lead, to preside over, to chair #957
- Serbian vodim/ˈvodɪm/ to lead #1,045
- Slovak viesť/vɪ̯esc/ to lead #867
- Slovenian vedel/ˈʋeːdɛw/ to lead, to conduct #134
- Swedish ledde/ˈlɛdɛ/ to lead; to guide, to conduct #1,942
- Telugu హీరో/ˈhiːroː/ the male lead of a movie #1,023
- Ukrainian вести[ʋeˈstɪ] to lead, to conduct #943
- Vietnamese dẫn[zən˦ˀ˥] to lead to a place #471
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.