How to say “approximately” 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 Tagalog, where mga is the 11th most used word.
- Albanian afërsisht about, approximately #2,347
- Arabic تقريبا #564
- Bosnian oko around, about, roughly, approximately #207
- Chinese 大概 approximately; roughly; about #201
- Croatian oko around, about, roughly, approximately #211
- Danish cirka circa, approximately #1,652
- Dutch ongeveer about, roughly, approximately #739
- English block A substantial, often approximately cuboid,… #1,790
- Esperanto proksimume #1,741
- Estonian umbes about, approximately #439
- Georgian დაახლოებით approximately, thereabout, thereabouts #1,036
- German etwa #477
- Greek περίπου approximately, about #556
- Hebrew בערך #466
- Hindi लगभग #543
- Hungarian körülbelül about, roughly, approximately #2,136
- Indonesian barang #541
- Korean 약 approximately; about #389
- Latvian aptuveni approximately, roughly; adverbial form of… #2,010
- Lithuanian maždaug #608
- Malayalam ഏകദേശം #296
- Norwegian omtrent approximately, about #1,139
- Persian تقریبا approximately, roughly, about #1,158
- Polish kiedyś at one time, formerly, once, approximately… #284
- Romanian cam approximately, a little #262
- Russian примерно about, approximately #1,367
- Serbian oko around, about, roughly, approximately #203
- Slovak as #1,733
- Spanish unos about, approximately #267
- Swedish ungefär about, approximately #1,042
- Tagalog mga approximately; around; about #11
- Tamil சுமார் about, approximately, on average #741
- Telugu సుమారు about, approximately, nearly #1,226
- Ukrainian приблизно approximately, roughly, about #1,582
- Urdu تقریبا around, about, approximately, close to,… #402
- Vietnamese độ about; approximately #478
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.