How to say “truly” in 39 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 Korean, where 정말 is the 25th most used word.
- Arabic حقا truly, verily, in truth #120
- Armenian ճշմարիտ truly, indeed, really #236
- Basque egiaz truly, really, actually #1,442
- Bosnian stvarno really, truly #107
- Bulgarian наистина really, truly #95
- Chinese 真正 truly; really; genuinely #112
- Croatian stvarno really, truly #111
- Czech skutečně really, truly #796
- Danish virkelig really, truly #158
- Dutch werkelijk really, truly #1,272
- English indeed Synonym of actually or truly #1,222
- Esperanto vere truly, really #86
- Estonian tõesti truly, really, indeed #119
- Finnish todella really, for real, truly #145
- French vraiment truly, really, genuinely #101
- Galician abofé truly, verily, certainly #1,434
- Georgian მართლაც indeed, truly #389
- Greek αλήθεια really, truly #116
- Hebrew ממש really, very, truly #91
- Hindi सचमुच very truly #1,685
- Hungarian tényleg really, in actuality, truly #76
- Icelandic sannarlega truly, verily #528
- Indonesian benar-benar #137
- Korean 정말 really; truly #25
- Latvian patiešām truly, really, indeed; adverbial form of… #412
- Macedonian навистина really, truly #86
- Malay benar really; truly; very #226
- Norwegian virkelig really, truly #184
- Polish naprawdę really, truly, actually #84
- Portuguese realmente truly, really, actually #404
- Romanian zău really, truly #1,877
- Russian действительно really, actually, truly, indeed #273
- Serbian stvarno really, truly #102
- Swedish verkligen really, truly #157
- Tagalog tunay truly; really #410
- Turkish cidden really, seriously, truly; greatly #567
- Ukrainian справді indeed, really, truly #217
- Urdu واقعی really, truly, verily, certainly, actually,… #130
- Vietnamese quả really; truly #410
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.