How to say “clear” 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 Finnish, where selvä is the 104th most used word.
- Afrikaans helder clear, bright #618
- Albanian qartë #441
- Arabic واضح #415
- Armenian պարզ not clouded, clear, serene #348
- Bengali স্পষ্ট clear, explicit, distinct #802
- Bosnian jasan clear, limpid #2,270
- Bulgarian ясен clear, bright, cloudless #2,410
- Catalan clar #190
- Chinese 表明 to make known; to make clear; to state clearly #969
- Croatian jasan clear, limpid #2,346
- Czech jasný #519
- Danish rydde To clear, empty #2,179
- English clearly In a clear manner #1,387
- Esperanto klara #1,907
- Estonian selge clear, unmuddled #324
- Finnish selvä #104
- French claire #1,452
- Galician claro clear, light #186
- Georgian გარკვეული #878
- German erklären to explain, to make clear #730
- Greek καθαρά clean, clear #1,391
- Hebrew ברור Clear: evident, obvious, apparent, certain #298
- Hindi स्पष्ट coherent, understandable; clear #551
- Hungarian egyértelmű unambiguous, clear #2,112
- Icelandic tær #2,492
- Indonesian nyata clear; obvious; evident #494
- Latvian skaidrs clean, clear, bright, without clouds #195
- Lithuanian grynas pure, clear, clean, neat #1,962
- Macedonian јасен clear, straightforward, comprehensible #2,098
- Malay bersih clean, clear, hygienic, pure #897
- Malayalam നീല blue; the color of the clear sky and deep sea #612
- Norwegian klar to clear #219
- Persian روشن bright, clear #432
- Romanian pur pure, clean, clear #610
- Russian выяснить to clear up, to elucidate, to clarify, to… #1,263
- Serbian jasan clear, limpid #2,396
- Slovenian jasen #1,063
- Spanish clara #2,164
- Swedish tydligt #2,066
- Tagalog malinaw #687
- Tamil விளக்கு to explain, make clear, elucidate #1,030
- Telugu సాదా plain, clear, blank #1,302
- Turkish net #1,728
- Urdu ظاہر clear, apparent, obviously #347
- Vietnamese rõ #297
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.