How to say “almost” in 46 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.
- casi/ˈkasi/ Spanish
- почти[pɐt͡ɕˈtʲi] Russian
- بالكاد/bilkaːd/ Arabic
- 差不多/ʈ͡ʂʰä⁵¹ b̥u¹ tu̯ɔ⁵⁵/ Chinese
- 대체[tɛt͡ɕʰe̞] Korean
- σχεδόν/sçeˈðon/ Greek
“almost” in Spanish: casi · French: presque · German: fast · Italian: quasi · Portuguese: quase · Chinese: 差不多 · Korean: 대체 · Russian: почти
It is commonest in Albanian, where gati is the 135th most used word.
Almost in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans amper/ˈam.pər/ #381
- Albanian gati/ɡati/ almost, around #135
- Arabic بالكاد/bilkaːd/ almost, nearly #529
- Armenian գրեթե/ɡəˈɾetʰe/ almost, nearly #825
- Basque ia/ia/ #184
- Bosnian gotovo/ɡǒtoʋo/ almost, hardly #406
- Bulgarian а[a] just, about to, on the point of, almost #33
- Catalan gairebé[ˌɡaj.ɾəˈβe] almost, nearly #513
- Chinese 差不多/ʈ͡ʂʰä⁵¹ b̥u¹ tu̯ɔ⁵⁵/ almost; nearly #293
- Croatian gotovo/ɡǒtoʋo/ almost, hardly #376
- Czech skoro[ˈskoro] almost, nearly #442
- Danish nærmest/ˈnɛɐ̯mesd/ #2,117
- Dutch bijna/ˈbɛi̯.naː/ #310
- English hardly/ˈhɑɹdli/ Barely, only just, almost not #1,433
- Esperanto preskaŭ/ˈpreskau̯/ almost, nearly #245
- Estonian pea/peɑ̯/ #158
- Finnish melkein/ˈmelkei̯n/ almost, nearly, close to #459
- French presque/pʁɛsk/ #469
- Galician case[ˈkɑsɪ] #284
- Georgian თითქმის[tʰitʰkʰmis] almost, nearly #573
- German fast/fast/ almost; nearly #407
- Greek σχεδόν/sçeˈðon/ #437
- Hebrew כמעט/kimˈ(ʔ)at/ #275
- Hungarian majdnem[ˈmɒjdnɛm] almost, nearly #391
- Icelandic næstum/ˈnaistʏm/ #299
- Indonesian hampir/ˈhampir/ #311
- Italian quasi/ˈkwa.zi/ almost, nearly #374
- Korean 대체[tɛt͡ɕʰe̞] #176
- Latvian gandrīz/ˈɡaŋdriːz/ #272
- Lithuanian beveik[bʲɛˈvʲɛɪ̯kʰ] almost, nearly #236
- Macedonian речиси[ˈrɛt͡ʃisi] #668
- Malay dekat[də.kat] Almost, nearly #351
- Norwegian nesten/ˈnɛstn̩/ nearly, almost #316
- Polish już/ˈjuʂ/ already; almost #36
- Portuguese quase/ˈkwa.zi/ #306
- Russian почти[pɐt͡ɕˈtʲi] almost, nearly #350
- Serbian gotovo/ɡǒtoʋo/ almost, hardly #409
- Slovak takmer/takmer/ almost, nearly #394
- Slovenian skoraj/skɔ̀ːraj/ almost, nearly, close #194
- Spanish casi/ˈkasi/ #319
- Swedish nästan/ˈnɛstan/ #354
- Tagalog halos/ˈhalos/ almost; nearly #317
- Tamil கிட்டத்தட்ட/kɪʈːɐt̪ːɐʈːɐ/ almost, nearly, about #341
- Turkish neredeyse[ˈnere.dejse] almost, nearly #386
- Ukrainian майже[ˈmai̯ʒe] almost, nearly #373
- Vietnamese gần[ɣən˨˩] nearly; almost #339
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 Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), CC BY-SA 4.0), Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 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.