How to say “simply” in 40 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.
- simplemente/ˌsimpleˈmente/ Spanish
- просто[ˈprostə] Russian
- 그냥[kɯɲa̠ŋ] Korean
- απλά/aˈpla/ Greek
- פשוט/paˈʃut/ Hebrew
- শুধু/ʃud̪ʱu/ Bengali
“simply” in Spanish: simplemente · French: simplement · Italian: semplicemente · Portuguese: simplesmente · Korean: 그냥 · Russian: просто · Greek: απλά
It is commonest in Korean, where 그냥 is the 24th most used word.
Simply in other languages, A to Z
- Albanian thjesht[θjɛʃt] #147
- Armenian խակ/χɑk/ unsophisticatedly, simply #852
- Basque lau/lau̯/ #238
- Bengali শুধু/ʃud̪ʱu/ simply, merely, just, only #55
- Bosnian jednostavno/jêdnostaːʋno/ #378
- Bulgarian просто[ˈprɔsto] #62
- Catalan simplement[ˌsim.pləˈmen] simply, just #607
- Chinese 根本/kən⁵⁵ pən²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/ at all; simply; utterly; absolutely #106
- Croatian jednostavno/jêdnostaːʋno/ #369
- Czech prostě[ˈproscɛ] #147
- Danish simpelthen/ˈsemˀbəldˌhɛnˀ/ #2,428
- Dutch gewoon/ɣəˈʋoːn/ simply, just #115
- English and/ˈænd/ Used simply to connect two noun phrases,… #8
- Esperanto simple/ˈsimple/ #240
- Estonian lihtsalt/lˈihtsɑlt/ simply, just #64
- French simplement/sɛ̃.plə.mɑ̃/ #759
- Galician simplemente/ˌsimpleˈmente/ #631
- Georgian უბრალოდ[ubɾäɫo̞tʰ] merely, simply #90
- German nur/nuːɐ̯/ only, just, merely, simply #43
- Greek απλά/aˈpla/ #83
- Hebrew פשוט/paˈʃut/ #60
- Hungarian egyszerűen[ˈɛcsɛryːɛn] #500
- Icelandic einfaldlega[ˈein.faltˌlɛːɣa] #1,615
- Italian semplicemente/sem.pli.t͡ʃeˈmen.te/ simply, plainly, plain #859
- Korean 그냥[kɯɲa̠ŋ] simply; just like that; just as it is #24
- Latvian vienkārši/ˈʋieːnkaːrʃi/ #139
- Lithuanian paprastai/pɐprɐsˈtɐɪ/ #557
- Macedonian едноставно[ɛdˈnɔstavnɔ] #268
- Malay sekadar/səˈkadar/ just, only, simply, merely #1,187
- Malayalam ലളിതമായി/lɐɭid̪ɐmaːji/ simply; in a simple manner #2,049
- Norwegian slett/ˈʃlɛt/ #1,296
- Polish zwykle/ˈzvɘ.klɛ/ simply, plainly, commonly #981
- Portuguese simplesmente/ˌsĩ.plizˈmẽ.t͡ʃi/ simply, merely #821
- Russian просто[ˈprostə] simply, plainly, just #35
- Serbian jednostavno/jêdnostaːʋno/ #408
- Slovenian preprosto/prɛprɔ̂stɔ/ simply, straightforwardly #335
- Spanish simplemente/ˌsimpleˈmente/ #511
- Swedish enkelt/ˈɛŋkɛlt/ #739
- Tagalog sukat/ˈsukat/ just; merely; simply #765
- Ukrainian просто[ˈprɔstɔ] just, simply, merely #26
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) and Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.