How to say “tell” in 42 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 esan is the 14th most used word.
- Afrikaans vertel to tell #91
- Armenian պատմել to relate, tell, narrate, recount #732
- Basque esan to say, tell #14
- Bengali জানানো to inform, to tell, to let know #921
- Bosnian pričati to narrate, tell #701
- Bulgarian кажа to say, to tell #111
- Chinese 告訴 to tell; to inform #206
- Croatian pričati to narrate, tell #592
- Danish fortælle to tell, to report #226
- Dutch zei to say, tell #104
- Esperanto diris to say, tell #68
- Finnish sanoi to say, tell #157
- French dit to say, to tell #70
- Georgian გითხრა to tell #429
- German erzählt to tell, to narrate, to recount #478
- Greek πω to say, tell #113
- Hebrew אומר to say, tell #83
- Hindi बताओ to tell, explain #227
- Hungarian mondta to say, tell #109
- Icelandic segja to say, to tell #57
- Indonesian bercanda to joke, to tell a joke, to make a joke #498
- Italian raccontato to tell, to narrate, to recount, to relate #2,219
- Latvian teica to say, to tell #151
- Lithuanian pasakyti to say, to tell #118
- Macedonian рече to say, utter, tell #120
- Malay beritahu to inform; to tell; to notify #98
- Malayalam പറഞ്ഞു to say, to tell #40
- Polish mówi to say, to tell #195
- Portuguese conta to tell #356
- Romanian zi to say, tell #179
- Russian сказать to say, to tell #121
- Serbian pričati to narrate, tell #872
- Slovak povedať to tell #85
- Spanish decir to say, to tell #111
- Swedish berätta to tell #167
- Tagalog magsabi to say; to tell #1,017
- Tamil சொல்ல to say, speak, tell, utter, mention, express #319
- Telugu చెప్పారు to say, tell #74
- Turkish söyle to say, to tell #171
- Ukrainian сказати to say, to tell #158
- Urdu بتانا to tell, to inform #473
- Vietnamese điều something to say or tell #81
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.