How to say “throw” in 46 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 bota is the 150th most used word.
- Afrikaans gooi to throw #461
- Albanian hedh to throw, toss, hurl #722
- Arabic طرح to throw, to cast, to fling, to toss #1,996
- Armenian նետել to throw, to cast #635
- Basque bota to throw #150
- Bosnian baci to throw, cast #932
- Bulgarian хвърля to throw, to toss #1,940
- Catalan tirar to throw, cast #1,653
- Chinese 投入 to throw into; to put into; to insert #1,028
- Croatian baci to throw, cast #1,050
- Czech hodit to cast, throw #1,461
- Danish smide to throw, toss #1,349
- Dutch gooi to throw #1,193
- English cast To throw #2,279
- Esperanto ĵetu to throw, fling, lob, pitch #1,260
- Estonian visata to throw #1,171
- Finnish heittää to throw, cast, hurl, toss #1,676
- French jeter to throw #1,081
- Galician botar to throw #874
- Georgian ყრის to throw #1,520
- German werfen to throw #1,371
- Hebrew זרק To throw, to toss: to cause an object to move… #1,883
- Hungarian dobd to throw, to cast #1,976
- Icelandic kasta to throw, to fling, to hurl, to toss #907
- Indonesian buang to throw away #1,075
- Latvian met to throw #770
- Lithuanian mesti to throw #1,039
- Macedonian фрли to throw, toss #583
- Malay buang to discard, reject, or throw away #641
- Malayalam കള #572
- Norwegian kastet #741
- Persian پرتاب throw, toss, hurl, shot #1,045
- Polish rzuć to throw; to pitch, to toss, to cast with… #1,845
- Portuguese atirar to throw #1,595
- Romanian aruncat throw, cast, hurl #952
- Russian бросить to throw #1,543
- Serbian baci to throw, cast #939
- Slovak hod #2,117
- Slovenian vreči to throw #924
- Spanish echar to throw, toss, cast, jettison #1,625
- Swedish kasta to throw #1,047
- Tagalog ihagis to cast; to throw #1,498
- Tamil வீச்சு throw, cast #1,111
- Turkish at to throw, cast, fire #560
- Ukrainian кинути to throw, to cast, to fling, to hurl #1,793
- Vietnamese phóng to throw; to launch; to let out #859
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.