How to say “nearly” in 35 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.
- было[ˈbɨɫə] Russian
- παραλίγο/paɾaˈliɣo/ Greek
- قریب/qə.ɾiːb/ Urdu
“nearly” in Russian: было · Greek: παραλίγο
It is commonest in Russian, where было is the 49th most used word.
Nearly in other languages, A to Z
- Arabic بالكاد/bilkaːd/ almost, nearly #529
- Armenian գրեթե/ɡəˈɾetʰe/ almost, nearly #825
- Bosnian zamalo/zǎmalo/ almost, nearly #1,742
- Bulgarian почти[pot͡ʃˈti] almost, nearly #319
- Catalan gairebé[ˌɡaj.ɾəˈβe] almost, nearly #513
- Chinese 差不多/ʈ͡ʂʰä⁵¹ b̥u¹ tu̯ɔ⁵⁵/ almost; nearly #293
- Croatian zamalo/zǎmalo/ almost, nearly #2,051
- Czech skoro[ˈskoro] almost, nearly #442
- Danish næsten/nɛstən/ #353
- Dutch haast/ɦaːst/ almost, nearly #1,110
- Esperanto preskaŭ/ˈpreskau̯/ almost, nearly #245
- Estonian peaaegu/ˈpeɑ̯ˌɑe̯ɡ̊u/ almost, nearly #388
- Finnish melkein/ˈmelkei̯n/ almost, nearly, close to #459
- Georgian თითქმის[tʰitʰkʰmis] almost, nearly #573
- German fast/fast/ almost; nearly #407
- Greek παραλίγο/paɾaˈliɣo/ nearly, almost, near miss, close but no… #1,309
- Hungarian majdnem[ˈmɒjdnɛm] almost, nearly #391
- Icelandic nánast/ˈnauːnast/ almost, nearly, practically #1,211
- Italian quasi/ˈkwa.zi/ almost, nearly #374
- Korean 거의[kʌ̹ɰi] almost, nearly #183
- Lithuanian beveik[bʲɛˈvʲɛɪ̯kʰ] almost, nearly #236
- Malay dekat[də.kat] Almost, nearly #351
- Norwegian nesten/ˈnɛstn̩/ nearly, almost #316
- Polish tuż/ˈtuʂ/ almost, nearly, right, just #1,386
- Russian было[ˈbɨɫə] nearly, on the point of, just about #49
- Serbian zamalo/zǎmalo/ almost, nearly #1,667
- Slovak takmer/takmer/ almost, nearly #394
- Slovenian skoraj/skɔ̀ːraj/ almost, nearly, close #194
- Tagalog halos/ˈhalos/ almost; nearly #317
- Tamil கிட்டத்தட்ட/kɪʈːɐt̪ːɐʈːɐ/ almost, nearly, about #341
- Telugu సుమారు/ˈsumaːru/ about, approximately, nearly #1,226
- Turkish neredeyse[ˈnere.dejse] almost, nearly #386
- Ukrainian майже[ˈmai̯ʒe] almost, nearly #373
- Urdu قریب/qə.ɾiːb/ #253
- Vietnamese gần[ɣən˨˩] nearly; almost #339
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 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.