How to say “straight” in 43 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 Chinese, where 一直 is the 29th most used word.
- Afrikaans reguit straight, straight on #698
- Albanian drejt #336
- Arabic مستقيم #2,328
- Armenian ուղիղ straight, directly #867
- Bengali সরাসরি directly, straight ahead #584
- Bosnian pravo #289
- Bulgarian прав #333
- Catalan directe directly; straight to, right to #1,693
- Chinese 一直 straight; straight ahead #29
- Croatian pravo #285
- Czech rovnou straight away, right away #1,196
- Danish ret #168
- Dutch rechter #935
- English side A bounding straight edge of a two-dimensional… #453
- Estonian otse #445
- Finnish suoraan #494
- French droit straight, straight on #391
- Georgian პირდაპირ directly, straight #366
- Greek αμέσως immediately, at once, straight away #297
- Hebrew ישר right, straight #558
- Hindi सीधे #644
- Hungarian egyenesen in a straight line #1,059
- Icelandic beint directly, straight #316
- Indonesian sisi a bounding straight edge of a two-dimensional… #598
- Italian diritto #990
- Korean 똑바로 straight, upright, even #594
- Lithuanian tiesiog straight, right #79
- Macedonian право straight, directly #155
- Malay terus straight; direct #227
- Malayalam നേരെ #152
- Norwegian greit straight, easy #132
- Persian راست #316
- Polish prosto #817
- Russian прямо #232
- Serbian pravo #293
- Slovenian naravnost #411
- Spanish derecho #661
- Swedish sidan side; a bounding straight edge or surface #577
- Tamil நேர straight, straight on #1,014
- Telugu నేరుగా in a straight manner; straight, direct #286
- Turkish doğru toward, straight toward, straight to #77
- Ukrainian прямо #198
- Vietnamese thẳng straight; upright #666
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.