How to say “just” in 52 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.
- عادل/ʕaː.dil/ Arabic
- δίκιο/ˈðico/ Greek
- צודק/t͡soˈdek/ Hebrew
- სამართლიანი[sämäɾtʰliäni] Georgian
- വെറും/ʋerum/ Malayalam
- просто[ˈprɔstɔ] Ukrainian
“just” in Arabic: عادل · Greek: δίκιο
It is commonest in Croatian, where samo is the 21st most used word.
Just in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans maar/mɑːr/ only; solely; just #20
- Albanian posa/pɔsa/ just, hardly, scarcely #1,831
- Arabic عادل/ʕaː.dil/ just, fair, equitable #1,308
- Armenian միայն/miˈɑjn/ only, solely, just #54
- Basque soilik/s̺oi̯lik/ just, only #342
- Bengali ঠিক/ʈʰik/ right, exactly, just #19
- Bosnian samo/sâmo/ just, only, only just, merely, solely #23
- Bulgarian а[a] just, about to, on the point of, almost #33
- Catalan només[nuˈmes] only, just #55
- Chinese 只是/ʈ͡ʂɻ̩²¹⁴⁻²¹ ʂɻ̩⁵¹/ only; merely; just #10
- Croatian samo/sâmo/ just, only, only just, merely, solely #21
- Czech právě[ˈpraːvjɛ] just, exactly #182
- Danish bare/ˈbaːrə/ #43
- Dutch maar/maːr/ only, just #19
- English fresh/fɹɛʃ/ Recently; just recently; most recently #1,264
- Esperanto nur/nur/ only, just #44
- Estonian lihtsalt/lˈihtsɑlt/ simply, just #64
- Finnish juuri/ˈjuːri/ right, just, exactly, precisely #107
- Galician igual/iˈɡwal/ in the same way; just like #336
- Georgian სამართლიანი[sämäɾtʰliäni] just, right, equitable, fair-minded #1,396
- German nur/nuːɐ̯/ only, just, merely, simply #43
- Greek δίκιο/ˈðico/ that which is right, correct, just #288
- Hebrew צודק/t͡soˈdek/ just, fair #372
- Hindi इसी/ɪ.siː/ emphatic of इस: only this, just this #825
- Hungarian pont[ˈpont] exactly, just, precisely #289
- Icelandic bara/ˈpaːra/ only, just, if only #22
- Indonesian ini/ˈini/ only, just #5
- Italian solo/ˈso.lo/ only, just, but, alone, merely #39
- Korean 그냥[kɯɲa̠ŋ] simply; just like that; just as it is #24
- Latvian tāpat/taːˈpat/ #220
- Lithuanian tik[tʲɪk] just, only #23
- Macedonian само[ˈsamɔ] only, just #28
- Malay baru/ˈbaru/ just, recently, a few moments ago #112
- Malayalam വെറും/ʋerum/ #115
- Norwegian bare/ˈbɑːrə/ only, merely, just #36
- Persian تازه[t̪ʰɒː.zé] just, now #248
- Polish tylko/ˈtɘl.kɔ/ except, only, just #26
- Portuguese só/ˈsɔ/ only; just #45
- Romanian doar/do̯ar/ just, only, merely #47
- Russian просто[ˈprostə] simply, plainly, just #35
- Serbian samo/sâmo/ just, only, only just, merely, solely #23
- Slovak len/len/ only, just #22
- Slovenian le/lɛ́/ only, merely, just #80
- Spanish solo/ˈsolo/ only; solely; just #89
- Swedish bara/ba/ just, only #39
- Tagalog lang/ˈlaŋ/ only; just #13
- Tamil வெறும்/ʋɛrʊm/ mere, sheer, just, nothing but #227
- Telugu వలె/ˈʋale/ like, similar to, just as #355
- Turkish sadece/saːdedʒe/ only, just #38
- Ukrainian просто[ˈprɔstɔ] just, simply, merely #26
- Urdu صرف/sɪɾf/ only, just #43
- Vietnamese mới[məːj˧˦] have just; just #146
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 Bengali (google (bn_BD), CC BY-SA 4.0), 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.