How to say “seek” in 35 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 Vietnamese, where tìm is the 102nd most used word.
- Afrikaans soek to search, seek #179
- Albanian kërkon to look for, to seek, to search for #306
- Arabic تنجح to seek successful completion, fulfillment,… #1,200
- Armenian փնտրել to look for, to search, to seek #1,610
- Bengali লুকোচুরি hide and seek #1,840
- Bosnian tražio to seek, look for, search #661
- Bulgarian търся to look for, to seek, to search #697
- Catalan buscar to seek, to search for, to look for #463
- Chinese 追求 to seek; to pursue; to go after #929
- Croatian tražio to seek, look for, search #636
- Esperanto serĉas to search, seek, look for #431
- Finnish etsi to look for, seek, search #891
- French chercher to look for, to seek #315
- German verstecken hide and seek #1,284
- Hebrew חיפש to look for, search for, seek #2,329
- Hindi खोज to search, to look for, to seek #609
- Hungarian keres to look for; to seek; to search for #816
- Icelandic leita to seek, to search, to look for #231
- Indonesian cari to find; to search; to seek #336
- Macedonian побара to search, seek #949
- Malay mencari to seek, to search, to look for #197
- Norwegian søker to seek #1,410
- Polish szukam to look for, to seek, to search #1,100
- Portuguese procura to search; to seek; to look for #400
- Romanian caut to search, seek #746
- Russian искать to look for, to seek #929
- Serbian tražio to seek, look for, search #631
- Slovenian iskati to search, to seek #641
- Spanish buscando to seek, search for, look for, try to find,… #500
- Swedish söker to search for something, to seek #756
- Tamil தேடு to search, seek, look for, enquire after #1,493
- Turkish ara to seek, to look for, to search #401
- Ukrainian шукати to look for, to seek, to search #1,057
- Urdu ڈھونڈنا to seek #1,576
- 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.