How to say “read” in 45 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 Afrikaans, where lees is the 202nd most used word.
- Afrikaans lees to read #202
- Albanian lexuar to read #751
- Arabic أقرأ to cause one to read or study, to cause one… #1,384
- Armenian կարդալ to read #807
- Basque irakurri to read #299
- Bengali পড়া to read; to study #1,463
- Bosnian čitati to read #2,063
- Bulgarian чета to read #1,643
- Catalan llegir to read #920
- Croatian čitati to read #1,471
- Czech četl to read #1,437
- Danish læse to read #684
- Dutch lezen to read #811
- Esperanto legi to read #632
- Estonian lugema to read #1,477
- Finnish lukea to read #1,170
- French lit to read #542
- Galician ler to read #609
- Georgian წავიკითხე to read #1,458
- German lesen to read #857
- Greek διάβασα to read #1,488
- Hebrew קורא to read #533
- Hindi पढ़ to read #1,168
- Hungarian olvastam to read #1,556
- Icelandic lesa to read #435
- Indonesian baca to read #1,135
- Italian letto to read #324
- Latvian lasīt to read #1,419
- Lithuanian skaityti to read #906
- Macedonian чита to read #1,843
- Malay membaca to read #687
- Norwegian lese to read #682
- Polish czytać to read #2,133
- Portuguese ler to read #806
- Romanian citit to read #803
- Russian читать to read #1,567
- Slovak čítať to read #750
- Slovenian brati to read #686
- Spanish lee to read #1,128
- Swedish läsa to read #743
- Tagalog magbasa to read; to do reading #1,940
- Turkish okudum to read #1,485
- Ukrainian читати to read #1,448
- Urdu پڑھنا to read #2,154
- Vietnamese đọc to read, to pronounce #559
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.