How to say “merely” in 32 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.
- बस/bəs/ Hindi
- უბრალოდ[ubɾäɫo̞tʰ] Georgian
- بس/bəs/ Urdu
“merely” in Hindi: बस
It is commonest in Galician, where só is the 41st most used word.
Merely in other languages, A to Z
- Basque hutsik/ut͡s̺ik/ emptily, merely #500
- Bengali শুধু/ʃud̪ʱu/ simply, merely, just, only #55
- Bosnian samo/sâmo/ just, only, only just, merely, solely #23
- Chinese 只是/ʈ͡ʂɻ̩²¹⁴⁻²¹ ʂɻ̩⁵¹/ only; merely; just #10
- Croatian samo/sâmo/ just, only, only just, merely, solely #21
- Danish blot[ˈb̥lʌd̥] only, merely #672
- English just/d͡ʒʌst/ Only, simply, merely #39
- Estonian vaid/ˈvɑi̯d̥/ only, just, merely, solely #121
- Finnish vain/ˈʋɑi̯n/ only, merely, exclusively, solely, just #15
- Galician só[ˈsɔː] no more than; merely #41
- Georgian უბრალოდ[ubɾäɫo̞tʰ] merely, simply #90
- German nur/nuːɐ̯/ only, just, merely, simply #43
- Hindi बस/bəs/ merely, only #87
- Hungarian csupán[ˈt͡ʃupaːn] merely, only #1,085
- Icelandic einungis/ˈeiːnuɲcɪs/ merely, only #1,223
- Indonesian cuma/ˈt͡ʃuma/ only, merely #289
- Italian solo/ˈso.lo/ only, just, but, alone, merely #39
- Malay cuma/ˈt͡ʃumə/ only, merely #123
- Norwegian bare/ˈbɑːrə/ only, merely, just #36
- Persian صرف[sæɹf] only, merely #1,070
- Polish jedynie/jɛˈdɘ.ɲɛ/ only, merely #853
- Portuguese apenas/aˈpẽ.nɐs/ only; just; merely #157
- Romanian doar/do̯ar/ just, only, merely #47
- Russian лишь[lʲiʂ] only, merely, just #239
- Serbian samo/sâmo/ just, only, only just, merely, solely #23
- Slovenian le/lɛ́/ only, merely, just #80
- Spanish solamente/ˌsolaˈmente/ only, alone, merely #1,456
- Tagalog sukat/ˈsukat/ just; merely; simply #765
- Turkish yalnızca/jɑɫˈnɯz.d͡ʒɑ/ only, just, merely #520
- Ukrainian просто[ˈprɔstɔ] just, simply, merely #26
- Urdu بس/bəs/ merely, only #110
- Vietnamese thôi[tʰoj˧˧] that's all; merely; only; just #60
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), 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.