How to say “indeed” in 33 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 jah is the 16th most used word.
- Afrikaans darem certainly, indeed, really, at least #378
- Arabic أجل yes, indeed, no doubt #33
- Armenian ճշմարիտ truly, indeed, really #236
- Bosnian zaista #274
- Chinese 確實 indeed; really #1,622
- Croatian zaista #395
- Czech no certainly, indeed, of course #46
- Dutch inderdaad #547
- Esperanto do therefore, then, so, indeed, however #42
- Estonian jah yes, indeed #16
- Finnish tosiaan indeed, truly, really, all right #801
- Georgian ნამდვილად actually, authentically, indeed, really, sheer #207
- German echt really; indeed #358
- Greek όντως indeed, really, truly, in fact #745
- Hebrew אכן indeed, truly, certainly, yes #631
- Hungarian valóban indeed, really, truly, actually #455
- Indonesian memang #228
- Italian proprio really, quite, indeed #128
- Korean 과연 indeed, really #906
- Latvian patiešām truly, really, indeed; adverbial form of… #412
- Malay memang indeed; in fact; really #159
- Persian راستی #2,111
- Polish rzeczywiście actually, forsooth, indeed, really, sure… #1,636
- Portuguese sim indeed; do #25
- Romanian într-adevăr #636
- Russian неужели really?, is it possible?, indeed #726
- Serbian zaista #268
- Slovenian pač indeed, certainly #273
- Tagalog siyanga certainly; indeed; of course #1,746
- Tamil ஆமாம் yes, quite so, indeed #28
- Turkish sahi really, truthfully, indeed #971
- Ukrainian справді indeed, really, truly #217
- Urdu یقینا indeed, definitely, for sure, surely,… #642
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.