How to say “seem” in 32 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 Hindi, where लगता is the 63rd most used word.
- Albanian duket to seem, appear, look #98
- Arabic طاب to seem suitable, to remit, to do well #1,273
- Armenian թվալ to seem, appear #1,602
- Basque iruditu to seem #514
- Bosnian izgledati to seem, appear #1,716
- Catalan sembla to seem, look #140
- Chinese 好像 to seem; to be like; as if #78
- Croatian izgledati to seem, appear #1,412
- Czech zdá to seem #495
- Dutch lijkt to seem, appear #248
- Esperanto ŝajnas to seem; to look outwardly; to look #217
- French semble to seem, to resemble, to look like #500
- Galician parece to seem, appear #228
- Georgian ეტყობა to appear, to seem #1,387
- German aussieht to look, seem #1,355
- Greek φαίνεται to seem, appear #184
- Hindi लगता to seem, appear #63
- Icelandic virðast to seem, look like, to appear to be #2,338
- Indonesian terkesan to give the impression of, to seem #1,798
- Italian sembra to seem, to look, to appear #174
- Latvian šķiet to seem #153
- Lithuanian atrodyti to appear, seem, look #1,132
- Macedonian изгледа to look, appear, seem #122
- Malay kelihatan to look; to appear; to seem #330
- Norwegian synes to appear, seem #362
- Portuguese parece to seem #147
- Russian выглядеть to look, to appear, to seem #1,759
- Serbian izgledati to seem, appear #1,994
- Spanish parece to seem, to see fit #144
- Telugu కనిపిస్తుంది to seem, appear, be seen, be visible, come or… #182
- Urdu لگے to seem, to appear #542
- Vietnamese dường to seem; to appear #1,350
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.