How to say “nearly” in 35 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 Russian, where было is the 49th most used word.
- Arabic بالكاد almost, nearly #529
- Armenian գրեթե almost, nearly #825
- Bosnian zamalo almost, nearly #1,742
- Bulgarian почти almost, nearly #319
- Catalan gairebé almost, nearly #513
- Chinese 差不多 almost; nearly #293
- Croatian zamalo almost, nearly #2,051
- Czech skoro almost, nearly #442
- Danish næsten #353
- Dutch haast almost, nearly #1,110
- Esperanto preskaŭ almost, nearly #245
- Estonian peaaegu almost, nearly #388
- Finnish melkein almost, nearly, close to #459
- Georgian თითქმის almost, nearly #573
- German fast almost; nearly #407
- Greek παραλίγο nearly, almost, near miss, close but no… #1,309
- Hungarian majdnem almost, nearly #391
- Icelandic nánast almost, nearly, practically #1,211
- Italian quasi almost, nearly #374
- Korean 거의 almost, nearly #183
- Lithuanian beveik almost, nearly #236
- Malay dekat Almost, nearly #351
- Norwegian nesten nearly, almost #316
- Polish tuż almost, nearly, right, just #1,386
- Russian было nearly, on the point of, just about #49
- Serbian zamalo almost, nearly #1,667
- Slovak takmer almost, nearly #394
- Slovenian skoraj almost, nearly, close #194
- Tagalog halos almost; nearly #317
- Tamil கிட்டத்தட்ட almost, nearly, about #341
- Telugu సుమారు about, approximately, nearly #1,226
- Turkish neredeyse almost, nearly #386
- Ukrainian майже almost, nearly #373
- Urdu قریب #253
- Vietnamese gần nearly; almost #339
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.