to be honest

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Phrase

to be honest

1. (idiomatic, usually disjunctive) Frankly, honestly.

   Synonyms: TBH, tbh (initialisms); if I'm honest, in all honesty, I can't lie

   I don't mind, to be honest.

   To be honest, he has a bit of a body odor problem, but we haven't yet had an opportunity to tell him gently and privately.

Usage notes

• Often elaborated into longer conventionally established collocations, such as to be perfectly honest with you.
• In all forms (whether the base form or elaborated), a well-known piece of advice about this phrase is that overusing it undermines its purpose: if you have to tell someone that you're being honest, it tends to make them question your honesty more than they otherwise might. This advice is sometimes pedantically oversimplified into a hidebound notion that it is never a reasonable utterance, but an accurate assessment is that, as with most usage advice, context matters: being genuinely confessional has its places, in small doses. For example, there is sometimes the subtext of, Please excuse my sharing this thought, despite the general need to avoid oversharing, because the circumstances warrant its sharing.

Related terms

• for sure

Translations

frankly

• Azerbaijani: sözün düzü, sözün açığı
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 講真 / 讲真 (gong² zan¹)

  Mandarin: 老實說 / 老实说 (zh) (lǎoshíshuō)

• Czech: popravdě řečeno, upřímně řečeno
• Danish: for at være ærlig
• Dutch: eerlijk gezegd
• Finnish: rehellisesti (fi), vilpittömästi (fi)
• French: pour être honnête, franchement (fr), en toute franchise
• German: ehrlich gesagt (de)
• Greek: εδώ που τα λέμε (edó pou ta léme), για να είμαι ειλικρινής (gia na eímai eilikrinís)
• Hungarian: hogy őszinte legyek, őszintén szólva (hu), az igazat megvallva
• Icelandic: satt best að segja
• Italian: ad essere sincero
• Japanese: 正直に言うと (しょうじきにいうと, shōjiki ni iu to)
• Norwegian: for å være ærlig
• Polish: szczerze mówiąc (pl), prawdę mówiąc (pl), będąc szczerym (pl)
• Portuguese: para ser honesto (by a male), para ser honesta (by a female)
• Russian: че́стно говоря́ (ru) (čéstno govorjá), е́сли че́стно (jésli čéstno)
• Spanish: para ser honesta (by a female), para ser honesto (by a male), si me apuras
• Swedish: för att vara ärlig, ska jag vara ärlig
• Turkish: dürüst olmak gerekirse, açık söylemek gerekirse, doğruyu söylemek gerekirse, doğrusunu söylemek gerekirse, ne yalan söyleyeyim
• Ukrainian: че́сно ка́жучи (čésno kážučy), якщо́ че́сно (jakščó čésno)
• Welsh: a dweud y gwir, a bod yn onest

See also

• to be fair
• to be frank
• to be sure

References

• “to be honest”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• to the bones