How to say “try” in 43 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 Afrikaans, where probeer is the 146th most used word.
- Afrikaans probeer to try #146
- Albanian përpiqem to try #713
- Arabic تحاول to try hard, to finesse #293
- Armenian փորձել to try, to attempt #327
- Basque saiatu to try, to attempt #180
- Bosnian pokušaj attempt, try #796
- Bulgarian опитвам to try #488
- Catalan prova to try out, to test #668
- Chinese 試試 to try #1,587
- Croatian pokušaj attempt, try #763
- Czech snaží to try #720
- Danish prøv to try #502
- Dutch probeer to try, to attempt #355
- English avoid To try not to meet or communicate with; to… #1,949
- Esperanto provu to try, attempt #441
- Estonian proovida to try, to attempt #871
- Finnish yritän to try, attempt, endeavour/endeavor #362
- French essaie to test, to try on #463
- German versuchen to try, to attempt #470
- Greek προσπαθώ to attempt, try #551
- Hebrew ניסה to try, to attempt #729
- Hindi कोशिश effort, try #191
- Hungarian próbáltam to try #920
- Icelandic reyna to try, attempt #159
- Indonesian berusaha to try #401
- Italian prova to try, to try out, to test #536
- Lithuanian pabandyti to try, to attempt #949
- Macedonian обиди try, attempt #895
- Malayalam ശ്രമിക്കുക to try #1,353
- Norwegian prøvde to try #384
- Persian سعی try, attempt #436
- Polish sądzę to judge; to try #415
- Portuguese tentar to try, go for, attempt #206
- Romanian încerca to try, to attempt #684
- Russian попробовать to test, to attempt, to try #1,145
- Serbian pokušaj attempt, try #758
- Slovak pokus try, attempt #792
- Slovenian poskusiti to try, attempt #671
- Spanish intentando to try, to attempt; especially: to strain or… #882
- Swedish försöker to attempt, to try #230
- Tagalog subukan to try; to attempt; to try out #386
- Turkish dene to try #990
- Ukrainian спробувати to try, to attempt #946
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.