How to say “just” in 52 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 Indonesian, where ini is the 5th most used word.
- Afrikaans maar only; solely; just #20
- Albanian posa just, hardly, scarcely #1,831
- Arabic عادل just, fair, equitable #1,308
- Armenian միայն only, solely, just #54
- Basque soilik just, only #342
- Bengali ঠিক right, exactly, just #19
- Bosnian samo just, only, only just, merely, solely #23
- Bulgarian а just, about to, on the point of, almost #33
- Catalan només only, just #55
- Chinese 只是 only; merely; just #10
- Croatian samo just, only, only just, merely, solely #21
- Czech právě just, exactly #182
- Danish bare #43
- Dutch maar only, just #19
- English fresh Recently; just recently; most recently #1,264
- Esperanto nur only, just #44
- Estonian lihtsalt simply, just #64
- Finnish juuri right, just, exactly, precisely #107
- Galician igual in the same way; just like #336
- Georgian სამართლიანი just, right, equitable, fair-minded #1,396
- German nur only, just, merely, simply #43
- Greek δίκιο that which is right, correct, just #288
- Hebrew צודק just, fair #372
- Hindi इसी emphatic of इस: only this, just this #825
- Hungarian pont exactly, just, precisely #289
- Icelandic bara only, just, if only #22
- Indonesian ini only, just #5
- Italian solo only, just, but, alone, merely #39
- Korean 그냥 simply; just like that; just as it is #24
- Latvian tāpat #220
- Lithuanian tik just, only #23
- Macedonian само only, just #28
- Malay baru just, recently, a few moments ago #112
- Malayalam വെറും #115
- Norwegian bare only, merely, just #36
- Persian تازه just, now #248
- Polish tylko except, only, just #26
- Portuguese só only; just #45
- Romanian doar just, only, merely #47
- Russian просто simply, plainly, just #35
- Serbian samo just, only, only just, merely, solely #23
- Slovak len only, just #22
- Slovenian le only, merely, just #80
- Spanish solo only; solely; just #89
- Swedish bara just, only #39
- Tagalog lang only; just #13
- Tamil வெறும் mere, sheer, just, nothing but #227
- Telugu వలె like, similar to, just as #355
- Turkish sadece only, just #38
- Ukrainian просто just, simply, merely #26
- Urdu صرف only, just #43
- Vietnamese mới have just; just #146
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.