How to say “look” in 53 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 Malayalam, where നോക്ക് is the 43rd most used word.
- Afrikaans kyk to look #82
- Albanian duket to seem, appear, look #98
- Arabic ها behold, look, lo! #127
- Armenian տեսնել to see; to notice; to look at, to examine #226
- Basque begiratu to look at #151
- Bengali রূপ form, look #978
- Bosnian evo look, see, behold #182
- Bulgarian гледам to look at + object #547
- Catalan sembla to seem, look #140
- Chinese 期待 to look forward to; to await #488
- Croatian evo look, see, behold #201
- Czech vypadá to appear, look like, seem #222
- Danish ligner resemble, look like #404
- Dutch kijk to look #137
- English read To look at and interpret letters or other… #455
- Esperanto rigardu to look at, behold, watch, view #115
- Estonian vaata to look, to look at, to watch #102
- Finnish katso to look, have a look, take a look #168
- French regarde to look at #222
- Galician mira to look #201
- Georgian უყურებს to watch, look at #724
- German suchen to search, to look for #441
- Greek δω to see, watch, look at #130
- Hebrew מבט glance, look #809
- Hindi देखो to see, to look, to watch #120
- Hungarian nézd to look #135
- Icelandic leita to seek, to search, to look for #231
- Indonesian tampak to look #499
- Italian sembra to seem, to look, to appear #174
- Korean 볼 to see, to look at, to watch #177
- Latvian izskatās to look #212
- Lithuanian žiūrėk to look at; to look into, observe; to watch #209
- Macedonian види to see, look #121
- Malay lihat To look at #102
- Malayalam നോക്ക് to look #43
- Norwegian lett to look #423
- Persian نگاه look, glance #98
- Polish wygląda to look, to look like, to appear #191
- Portuguese olha to look #193
- Romanian pare to look #73
- Russian виду look, looks, appearance, air #342
- Serbian evo look, see, behold #183
- Slovak pozerať to look at, to stare, to gaze, to watch #529
- Slovenian evo look, see, behold #847
- Spanish mira to look at #148
- Swedish titta to look; keep one's eyes open as to be able… #178
- Tagalog tingnan to look at #111
- Tamil பார் to see, look at, view, notice, observe, watch #126
- Telugu గో there! look there! examples: అదిగో and ఇదిగో #105
- Turkish bak to look, gaze #63
- Ukrainian дивитися to watch, to look #976
- Urdu نظر look, gaze, glance #156
- Vietnamese tìm to search, to seek, to look for #102
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.