How to say “touch” in 36 different 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.
- tocar/toˈkaɾ/ Spanish
- لمس/la.ma.sa/ Arabic
- छू/t͡ʃʰuː/ Hindi
- επαφή/ˌepaˈfi/ Greek
- შეხება[ʃeχeba] Georgian
- դիպչել/dipˈt͡ʃʰel/ Armenian
“touch” in Spanish: tocar · French: touche · Italian: tocca · Portuguese: tocar · Arabic: لمس · Hindi: छू · Greek: επαφή
It is commonest in Basque, where ukitu is the 309th most used word.
Touch in other languages, A to Z
- Albanian prek/pɾɛk/ to touch #575
- Arabic لمس/la.ma.sa/ to touch #2,162
- Armenian դիպչել/dipˈt͡ʃʰel/ to touch #830
- Basque ukitu/ukitu/ to touch #309
- Bengali স্পর্শ/spɔɾʃo/ #589
- Catalan tocar[tuˈka] to touch #914
- Chinese 涉及/ʂɤ⁵¹ t͡ɕi³⁵/ to relate to; involve; to touch upon #1,534
- Croatian dirati/dǐːrati/ to touch #2,471
- Danish rør/røːr/ to touch #861
- Dutch raken/ˈraːkə(n)/ to touch #908
- English kiss/kɪs/ To touch with the lips or press the lips… #741
- Esperanto tuŝu/ˈtuʃu/ to touch #799
- Finnish koske/ˈkoske/ to touch #1,215
- French touche/tuʃ/ to touch #940
- Galician tocar/toˈkaɾ/ to touch #1,191
- Georgian შეხება[ʃeχeba] to touch #1,131
- Greek επαφή/ˌepaˈfi/ touch, contact #881
- Hebrew מגע/maˈɡa/ contact, touch #1,736
- Hindi छू/t͡ʃʰuː/ to touch, to feel #1,311
- Hungarian elérni[ˈɛleːrni] to reach, to be able to reach, to touch #1,809
- Icelandic snerta[ˈstnɛr̥ta] to touch #604
- Indonesian kena/kəˈna/ to touch, hit #1,088
- Italian tocca/ˈtɔk.ka/ to touch #1,312
- Lithuanian liesti[ˈlʲiɛ̌.sʲtʲɪ] to touch #1,440
- Macedonian допре[ˈdɔprɛ] to touch #1,579
- Malay sentuh/sənˈtoh/ to touch #609
- Persian لمس[læms] #1,371
- Polish dotykaj/dɔˈtɘ.kaj/ to touch #2,038
- Portuguese tocar/toˈka(ʁ)/ to touch, to finger, to feel #877
- Romanian atinge/aˈtin.d͡ʒe/ to touch #1,017
- Russian достать[dɐˈstatʲ] to reach, to touch #1,651
- Slovak pristáť/pristaːc/ to land, to touch down #1,952
- Slovenian dotakniti/dɔtaknìːti/ to touch #1,244
- Spanish tocar/toˈkaɾ/ to touch #1,232
- Urdu رابطہ/ɾɑːb.t̪ɑ(ː)/ contact, in touch #375
- Vietnamese chạm[t͡ɕaːm˧˨ʔ] to touch; to make physical contact #946
The speaker reads the word in the voice the LangX app uses for that language — synthesised, not a recording of a native speaker, so treat it as a guide. A row without a button has no reading we are free to use, or none we trust, yet. Voices for Bengali (google (bn_BD), CC BY-SA 4.0), Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), CC BY-SA 4.0), Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0) and Vietnamese (vais1000 (vi_VN), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.