How to say “true” in 41 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.
- वास्तव/ʋɑːs.t̪əʋ/ Hindi
- αληθινό/ˌaliθiˈno/ Greek
- მართალი[mäɾtʰäli] Georgian
- সত্যি/ʃɔt̪ːi/ Bengali
“true” in French: vrai · German: wahr · Italian: vero · Portuguese: real · Hindi: वास्तव · Greek: αληθινό
It is commonest in Indonesian, where benar is the 74th most used word.
True in other languages, A to Z
- Albanian vërtetë/vəɾtɛt(ə)/ true, real #96
- Arabic حق/ħaq.qa/ to be true, to be confirmed #285
- Armenian իսկական/iskɑˈkɑn/ real, true, genuine, authentic #928
- Basque egia/eɡia/ #83
- Bengali সত্যি/ʃɔt̪ːi/ true, genuine #166
- Bosnian pravu/ˈpravʊ/ pure, true, genuine #239
- Catalan crec[ˈkɾɛk] to take as true #112
- Chinese 青蛙/t͡ɕʰiŋ⁵⁵ wä⁵⁵/ frog, especially true frogs #2,098
- Croatian pravu/ˈpravʊ/ pure, true, genuine #263
- Danish sandt/ˈsanˀd/ #357
- Dutch echte/ˈɛxtə/ authentic, true, genuine, real #426
- English believe/bɪˈliv/ To accept as true, particularly without… #201
- Esperanto vera/ˈvera/ #270
- Finnish kunnon/ˈkunːon/ proper, real, true, decent #839
- French vrai/vʁɛ/ true; truly #157
- Galician verdadeiro/beɾdaˈdejɾo/ true; authentic #986
- Georgian მართალი[mäɾtʰäli] true, correct #208
- German wahr/vaːr/ true, real #334
- Greek αληθινό/ˌaliθiˈno/ true, real #981
- Hebrew אמיתי/(ʔ)amiˈti/ real, true, actual #391
- Hindi वास्तव/ʋɑːs.t̪əʋ/ true, real, genuine, actual, factual, ],… #186
- Hungarian igaz[ˈiɡɒz] #83
- Icelandic satt/saht/ true, not a lie, authentic #131
- Indonesian benar/bəˈnar/ #74
- Italian vero/ˈve.ro/ #109
- Korean 옳아[o̞ɾa̠] yes, true, right #2,246
- Latvian īsts[īːsts] real, true, genuine, not false or artificial #606
- Lithuanian tikras/ˈtɪkrɐs/ correct, true #192
- Malay sejati/səˈd͡ʒati/ real; true #1,112
- Norwegian sant/ˈsɑnt/ true, real, genuine #157
- Polish prawdziwe/pravˈd͡ʑi.vɛ/ #963
- Portuguese real/ʁeˈaw/ true, real #761
- Romanian adevărat/a.de.vəˈrat/ #236
- Serbian pravu/ˈpravʊ/ pure, true, genuine #232
- Slovenian držati/dərˈʒaːti/ to be true #696
- Spanish real/reˈal/ true friend, best friend #606
- Swedish sant/ˈsant/ true; according to the truth #325
- Tagalog real/ɾeˈal/ true; real; genuine #2,338
- Tamil பலி/pɐliː/ to happen, come true #904
- Urdu بلے/bə.leː/ yes, true, right #1,253
- Vietnamese thực[tʰɨk̚˧˨ʔ] true, real #207
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), 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.