How to say “truth” in 45 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.
- verdad/beɾˈda/ Spanish
- 진실[t͡ɕinɕʰiɭ] Korean
- सच/sət͡ʃ/ Hindi
- სიმართლე[simäɾtʰle̞] Georgian
- সত্য/ʃot̪ːo/ Bengali
- உண்மை/ʊɳmɐɪ̯/ Tamil
“truth” in Spanish: verdad · French: vérité · Italian: verità · Portuguese: verdade · Korean: 진실 · Hindi: सच
It is commonest in Spanish, where verdad is the 90th most used word.
Truth in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans waarheid/ˈvɑːrhɛɪt/ #333
- Arabic حقا/ħaq.qan/ truly, verily, in truth #120
- Bengali সত্য/ʃot̪ːo/ truth, reality #292
- Bosnian istina/îstina/ #334
- Bulgarian истина[ˈistinɐ] #560
- Catalan veritat[bə.ɾiˈtat] #155
- Chinese 真相/ʈ͡ʂən⁵⁵ ɕi̯ɑŋ⁵¹/ actual facts; truth #328
- Croatian istina/îstina/ #327
- Czech pravdu[ˈpravdu] #207
- Danish sandheden/ˈsanˌheðˀən/ #485
- Dutch waarheid/ˈʋaːr.ɦɛi̯t/ #463
- English knew/ˈn(j)u/ To perceive the truth or factuality of; to be… #288
- Esperanto veron/ˈveron/ #544
- Estonian tõsi/ˈtɤsi/ #374
- Finnish totta/ˈtotːɑ/ truth, reality, real thing #131
- French vérité/ve.ʁi.te/ #431
- Galician verdade/beɾˈdade/ #135
- Georgian სიმართლე[simäɾtʰle̞] #502
- German eigentlich/ˈaɪ̯ɡəntlɪç/ really, actually, in truth #360
- Hebrew באמת/beʔeˈmet/ really, in truth #64
- Hindi सच/sət͡ʃ/ #193
- Hungarian valójában[ˈvɒloːjaːbɒn] really, in reality, in truth, actually, as a… #463
- Icelandic sannleikur[ˈsan.leiːkʏr] #1,794
- Indonesian bohong/ˈbohoŋ/ not in line with reality and truth; untrue,… #777
- Italian verità/ve.riˈta/ #745
- Korean 진실[t͡ɕinɕʰiɭ] the truth #1,725
- Latvian patiesībā/ˈpatiesiːbaː/ in truth, in fact, as a matter of fact #359
- Lithuanian tiesą[²ˈtʲiɛsɑː] truth, true #260
- Macedonian вистина[ˈvistina] #315
- Malay adakah/ˌadəˈkah/ Question pronoun used to inquire about the… #84
- Malayalam സത്യം/sat̪jam/ #108
- Norwegian sannheten/ˈsɑnˌheːtn̩/ #531
- Polish prawdę/ˈprav.dɛ/ #499
- Portuguese verdade/veʁˈda.d͡ʒi/ #150
- Romanian adevărul/ˌadeˈvərul/ #489
- Serbian istina/îstina/ #332
- Slovak pravdu/pravdu/ #151
- Slovenian resnica/rɛsnìːt͡sa/ #421
- Spanish verdad/beɾˈda/ #90
- Swedish sant/ˈsant/ true; according to the truth #325
- Tagalog katotohanan/katotoˈhanan/ truth; reality; veracity #427
- Tamil உண்மை/ʊɳmɐɪ̯/ truth, fact, reality #271
- Turkish açıkçası/aˈt͡ʃɯk.t͡ʃa.sɯ/ frankly, to tell the truth #1,225
- Ukrainian правда[ˈprau̯dɐ] #98
- Urdu سچ/sət͡ʃ/ #176
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.