How to say “see” 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 Hebrew, where יש is the 14th most used word.
- Afrikaans sien to see #55
- Albanian shoh to see #140
- Arabic ولا For non-idiomatic uses, see وَ and لَا #99
- Armenian տեսնել to see; to notice; to look at, to examine #226
- Basque ikusi to see #33
- Bengali দেখা to see #85
- Bosnian evo look, see, behold #182
- Bulgarian видя to see #154
- Catalan veure to see #73
- Chinese 看到 to catch sight of; to see #19
- Croatian vidjeti to see #161
- Czech viděl to see #240
- Danish se to see #56
- Dutch zien to see #96
- English eyes An organ through which animals see #396
- Esperanto vidis to see #131
- Estonian näha to see #189
- Finnish nähdä to see #190
- French vois to see #180
- Galician ver to see #93
- Georgian ხედავ to see #270
- German sehen to see; to have sight #107
- Greek δω to see, watch, look at #130
- Hebrew יש there is or are; there exist; see usage notes… #14
- Hindi देखो to see, to look, to watch #120
- Hungarian láttam to see #177
- Icelandic sé to see, to sense or perceive with one's eyes #52
- Indonesian lihat to see, to perceive with the eyes #82
- Italian visto to see #146
- Korean 나는 topic-marked form of 나: see -은 #64
- Latvian redzēt to see #221
- Lithuanian matau to see #224
- Macedonian види to see, look #121
- Malay nampak to see; to catch sight of; to perceive… #122
- Malayalam കണ്ടു to see #81
- Norwegian se to see #60
- Persian ببینم to see, to look #459
- Polish zobaczyć to see; to catch sight of, to glimpse #256
- Portuguese ver to see; to observe #87
- Romanian văzut to see #141
- Russian видеть to see #334
- Serbian evo look, see, behold #183
- Slovak videl to see #159
- Slovenian videti to see #113
- Spanish ver to see, to spot #120
- Swedish se to see #82
- Tagalog makita to happen to see; to be able to see #145
- Tamil பார் to see, look at, view, notice, observe, watch #126
- Telugu చూడు to see #708
- Turkish görmek to see, watch #239
- Ukrainian бачити to see #379
- Urdu دیکھنے to look, see, watch #244
- Vietnamese xem to see; to look at; to watch; to read #128
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.