How to say “steal” in 38 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 Basque, where lapurtu is the 377th most used word.
- Afrikaans steel to steal #839
- Albanian vjedh to steal #1,353
- Arabic سرق to steal, take away clandestinely #1,032
- Armenian խլել to seize, snatch, steal, take away #848
- Basque lapurtu to steal #377
- Bosnian ukrasti to steal #2,366
- Catalan roba to rob, steal #649
- Chinese 偷看 to steal a glance at; to peek #1,875
- Croatian ukrasti to steal #1,852
- Czech ukradl to steal #1,290
- Danish stjal to steal #886
- Dutch gestolen to steal #745
- English rob To steal from, especially using force or… #2,177
- Esperanto ŝtelis to steal #627
- Estonian varastama to steal #2,485
- Finnish varasti to steal, thieve, purloin #2,226
- Galician roubar to steal #1,421
- German gestohlen to steal #1,097
- Hebrew גנב to steal #937
- Hindi चुरा to steal #1,016
- Icelandic stela to steal #687
- Indonesian mencuri to steal #553
- Italian rubato to steal #976
- Latvian nozaga to steal #1,202
- Lithuanian vogti to steal #1,818
- Macedonian украде to steal #930
- Norwegian stjal to steal #869
- Polish ukradł to steal #2,293
- Portuguese roubar to steal #1,095
- Romanian fura to steal #2,269
- Slovak ukradnúť to steal #1,020
- Slovenian ukrasti to steal #985
- Swedish stal to steal #987
- Tagalog magnakaw to steal #1,244
- Tamil திருடு to steal #2,112
- Turkish çalmak to steal #2,136
- Urdu لوٹنا to loot, steal #1,740
- Vietnamese cắp to filch, to steal #1,110
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.