How to say “watch” in 45 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 Estonian, where vaata is the 102nd most used word.
- Afrikaans horlosie #664
- Albanian pashë to watch, look, observe #293
- Arabic حذر to watch out #2,290
- Armenian հսկել to watch over, to guard, to supervise, to… #1,147
- Bengali পাহারা watching or guarding; a watch, watchman,… #1,108
- Bosnian sat clock, watch #441
- Bulgarian изглеждам to watch #1,152
- Catalan mira to look, to look at, to watch #162
- Chinese 照看 to watch over; to look after #1,318
- Croatian sat clock, watch #438
- Czech hodinky #1,877
- Danish vagt guard, watch #1,177
- Dutch horloge #2,128
- Esperanto rigardu to look at, behold, watch, view #115
- Estonian vaata to look, to look at, to watch #102
- Finnish kello #441
- French gardes a watch, guard #1,590
- Galician olla to look; to watch; to observe #1,137
- Georgian უყურებს to watch, look at #724
- German schau to watch, to view #504
- Greek δω to see, watch, look at #130
- Hebrew זהירות Watch out! #895
- Hindi देखो to see, to look, to watch #120
- Hungarian figyelj to watch, to observe, to pay attention,… #220
- Icelandic gæta to watch over, look after, guard, protect #893
- Indonesian jaga to watch over, to keep, to guard #687
- Italian guarda to look at, to watch, to glance or gaze at #246
- Korean 볼 to see, to look at, to watch #177
- Latvian pulkstenis clock, watch #1,266
- Lithuanian žiūrėk to look at; to look into, observe; to watch #209
- Macedonian пази to watch, keep, take heed of, take care of #664
- Malay menonton to watch #674
- Persian گشت patrol, watch #1,202
- Polish uważaj to watch out, to take care, to look out #683
- Romanian urmări to watch; to follow, to pursue #2,034
- Russian следить to watch, to follow, to spy #2,171
- Serbian sat clock, watch #452
- Slovenian gledati to watch, to observe; to view #453
- Swedish kolla to look, to watch #293
- Tagalog relo #599
- Tamil பாதுகாப்பு protection, guard, watch #160
- Turkish görmek to see, watch #239
- Ukrainian дивитися to watch, to look #976
- Urdu دیکھنے to look, see, watch #244
- Vietnamese xem to see; to look at; to watch; to read #128
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.