How to say “take” in 52 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 लिए is the 9th most used word.
- Afrikaans vat to take #231
- Albanian marrë to take, grab #120
- Arabic حدث to happen, to take place #88
- Armenian վերցնել to take #417
- Basque hartu to take, receive, accept #56
- Bengali নেন to take #1,076
- Bosnian uzeti to take #527
- Bulgarian взема to take #280
- Catalan crec to take as true #112
- Chinese 注意 to pay attention to; to take note of; to… #123
- Croatian uzeti to take #420
- Czech podívej to look, take a look, check out #239
- Danish tager to take, get, pick up #116
- Dutch neem to take, to take hold of, to grasp or grab #204
- English happened To occur or take place #219
- Esperanto prenu to take, get, seize, lay hold of, pick up #204
- Estonian palun please, please take, there you are #77
- Finnish katso to look, have a look, take a look #168
- French prendre to take #193
- Galician levar to take, to carry, to transport #386
- Georgian აიღო to take #987
- German nehmen to take #277
- Greek συμβαίνει to happen, to occur, to take place #189
- Hebrew מוציא to take or bring out or forth #1,659
- Hindi लिए to take #9
- Hungarian vettem to take, grab #487
- Icelandic taka to take #127
- Indonesian melakukan to do, to perform, to take action #79
- Italian successo to take the place, to succeed #202
- Korean 빼 to pull, to remove, to take out #1,113
- Latvian ņem to take; to seize with one's hands for some… #379
- Lithuanian ima to take #940
- Macedonian зема to take #597
- Malay berlaku to happen, to occur, to take place #128
- Malayalam ഇന്നാ here, take #412
- Norwegian ta to take #61
- Persian برنده to bear; to carry; to take #470
- Polish weź to take #462
- Portuguese aconteceu to happen; to occur; to take place #213
- Romanian ia to take #177
- Russian возьми to take #358
- Serbian uzeo to take #581
- Slovak vziať to take #363
- Slovenian vzeti to take #407
- Spanish cuidado to look after, take care of #378
- Swedish ta take; to grab and move to oneself #59
- Tagalog kunin to take something by the hand; to fetch; to… #173
- Tamil சார் to depend upon, take shelter in #114
- Turkish al to take #182
- Ukrainian взяти to take #519
- Urdu لئے to take, get #22
- Vietnamese đưa to bring, to take, to give, to hand #149
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.