How to say “seek” in 35 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.
- buscando/busˈkando/ Spanish
- 追求/ʈ͡ʂu̯eɪ̯⁵⁵ t͡ɕʰi̯oʊ̯³⁵/ Chinese
- ڈھونڈنا/ɖʱuːnɖ.nɑː/ Urdu
“seek” in Spanish: buscando · Chinese: 追求 · Turkish: ara
It is commonest in Malay, where mencari is the 197th most used word.
Seek in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans soek/ˈsuk/ to search, seek #179
- Albanian kërkon/kəɾˈkɔn/ to look for, to seek, to search for #306
- Arabic تنجح/tanad͡ʒd͡ʒaħa/ to seek successful completion, fulfillment,… #1,200
- Armenian փնտրել/pʰəntˈɾel/ to look for, to search, to seek #1,610
- Bengali লুকোচুরি/lukot͡ʃuɾi/ hide and seek #1,840
- Bosnian tražio/ˈtraʒɪo/ to seek, look for, search #661
- Bulgarian търся[ˈtɤrsʲɐ] to look for, to seek, to search #697
- Catalan buscar[busˈka] to seek, to search for, to look for #463
- Chinese 追求/ʈ͡ʂu̯eɪ̯⁵⁵ t͡ɕʰi̯oʊ̯³⁵/ to seek; to pursue; to go after #929
- Croatian tražio/ˈtraʒɪo/ to seek, look for, search #636
- Esperanto serĉas/ˈsert͡ʃas/ to search, seek, look for #431
- Finnish etsi/ˈetsɪ/ to look for, seek, search #891
- French chercher/ʃɛʁ.ʃe/ to look for, to seek #315
- German verstecken/fɛɐ̯ˈʃtɛkən/ hide and seek #1,284
- Hebrew חיפש/χiˈpes/ to look for, search for, seek #2,329
- Hindi खोज/kʰoːd͡ʒ/ to search, to look for, to seek #609
- Hungarian keres[ˈkɛrɛʃ] to look for; to seek; to search for #816
- Icelandic leita/ˈleiːta/ to seek, to search, to look for #231
- Indonesian cari/ˈt͡ʃari/ to find; to search; to seek #336
- Macedonian побара[ˈpɔbaɾa] to search, seek #949
- Malay mencari/mən.t͡ʃa.ri/ to seek, to search, to look for #197
- Norwegian søker/ˈsøːkər/ to seek #1,410
- Polish szukam/ˈʂu.kam/ to look for, to seek, to search #1,100
- Portuguese procura/pɾoˈku.ɾɐ/ to search; to seek; to look for #400
- Romanian caut/kaˈut/ to search, seek #746
- Russian искать[ɪˈskatʲ] to look for, to seek #929
- Serbian tražio/ˈtraʒɪo/ to seek, look for, search #631
- Slovenian iskati/iskàːti/ to search, to seek #641
- Spanish buscando/busˈkando/ to seek, search for, look for, try to find,… #500
- Swedish söker/ˈsøːkɛr/ to search for something, to seek #756
- Tamil தேடு/t̪eːɖɯ/ to search, seek, look for, enquire after #1,493
- Turkish ara/aˈɾa/ to seek, to look for, to search #401
- Ukrainian шукати[ʃʊˈkate] to look for, to seek, to search #1,057
- Urdu ڈھونڈنا/ɖʱuːnɖ.nɑː/ to seek #1,576
- Vietnamese tìm[tim˨˩] to search, to seek, to look for #102
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), 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.