How to say “almost” in 46 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 Bulgarian, where а is the 33rd most used word.
- Afrikaans amper #381
- Albanian gati almost, around #135
- Arabic بالكاد almost, nearly #529
- Armenian գրեթե almost, nearly #825
- Basque ia #184
- Bosnian gotovo almost, hardly #406
- Bulgarian а just, about to, on the point of, almost #33
- Catalan gairebé almost, nearly #513
- Chinese 差不多 almost; nearly #293
- Croatian gotovo almost, hardly #376
- Czech skoro almost, nearly #442
- Danish nærmest #2,117
- Dutch bijna #310
- English hardly Barely, only just, almost not #1,433
- Esperanto preskaŭ almost, nearly #245
- Estonian pea #158
- Finnish melkein almost, nearly, close to #459
- French presque #469
- Galician case #284
- Georgian თითქმის almost, nearly #573
- German fast almost; nearly #407
- Greek σχεδόν #437
- Hebrew כמעט #275
- Hungarian majdnem almost, nearly #391
- Icelandic næstum #299
- Indonesian hampir #311
- Italian quasi almost, nearly #374
- Korean 대체 #176
- Latvian gandrīz #272
- Lithuanian beveik almost, nearly #236
- Macedonian речиси #668
- Malay dekat Almost, nearly #351
- Norwegian nesten nearly, almost #316
- Polish już already; almost #36
- Portuguese quase #306
- Russian почти almost, nearly #350
- Serbian gotovo almost, hardly #409
- Slovak takmer almost, nearly #394
- Slovenian skoraj almost, nearly, close #194
- Spanish casi #319
- Swedish nästan #354
- Tagalog halos almost; nearly #317
- Tamil கிட்டத்தட்ட almost, nearly, about #341
- Turkish neredeyse almost, nearly #386
- Ukrainian майже almost, nearly #373
- Vietnamese gần nearly; almost #339
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.