How to say “touch” in 36 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 ukitu is the 309th most used word.
- Albanian prek to touch #575
- Arabic لمس to touch #2,162
- Armenian դիպչել to touch #830
- Basque ukitu to touch #309
- Bengali স্পর্শ #589
- Catalan tocar to touch #914
- Chinese 涉及 to relate to; involve; to touch upon #1,534
- Croatian dirati to touch #2,471
- Danish rør to touch #861
- Dutch raken to touch #908
- English kiss To touch with the lips or press the lips… #741
- Esperanto tuŝu to touch #799
- Finnish koske to touch #1,215
- French touche to touch #940
- Galician tocar to touch #1,191
- Georgian შეხება to touch #1,131
- Greek επαφή touch, contact #881
- Hebrew מגע contact, touch #1,736
- Hindi छू to touch, to feel #1,311
- Hungarian elérni to reach, to be able to reach, to touch #1,809
- Icelandic snerta to touch #604
- Indonesian kena to touch, hit #1,088
- Italian tocca to touch #1,312
- Lithuanian liesti to touch #1,440
- Macedonian допре to touch #1,579
- Malay sentuh to touch #609
- Persian لمس #1,371
- Polish dotykaj to touch #2,038
- Portuguese tocar to touch, to finger, to feel #877
- Romanian atinge to touch #1,017
- Russian достать to reach, to touch #1,651
- Slovak pristáť to land, to touch down #1,952
- Slovenian dotakniti to touch #1,244
- Spanish tocar to touch #1,232
- Urdu رابطہ contact, in touch #375
- Vietnamese chạm to touch; to make physical contact #946
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.