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Updated on 8 Feb 2023

brandun

1 February

Simplified Chinese (China)

English (US)
English (UK)

Question about English (US)

Can you tell me some alternatives for “honestly” and “to be honest”? I’d like commonly used alternatives, not rare ones.

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Natitan

1 February

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English (US)
English (UK)

@branduhn Yes, a little bit.

Starting a sentence with "To be honest" makes it sound like you are going to say something that might be a little bit disappointing to hear. "To be frank" makes it sound like you are going to say something slightly more disappointing. And "To be blunt" makes it sound like you are going to say something quite disappointing/hard to hear.

But "to be honest" is pretty flexible and can be used to describe something that's only a little bit bad or something that's very bad.

Ex:
"To be honest, I have never heard of that song."
"To be honest, I have never liked you."
Both sound natural even though one is a lot worse than the other.

"To be blunt, I have never heard of that song" might be OK in a context where not hearing a song is really bad for some reason. But other than that, it's a bit unnatural.

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Natitan

1 February

English (US)
English (UK)

"Frankly" and "to be frank" are some good, commonly used alternatives. You can use them exactly the same way as you use "honestly" and "to be honest":

Ex:
"Frankly, I don't care about that."
"To be frank, I have no idea."

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brandun

1 February

Simplified Chinese (China)

@Natitan Thank you. Can I use “bluntly” and “to be blunt” too?

"Bluntly, I don't care about that."
"To be blunt, I have no idea."

Natitan

1 February

English (US)
English (UK)

@branduhn Yes, that's another good alternative! Though you should know that for whatever reason starting a sentence with "bluntly..." is usually only done when describing another person.

Ex:
"Bluntly, she told him no."

But "To put it bluntly"/"To be blunt"/"Put bluntly" are commonly used in the first person.

Ex:
"To be blunt, I have no idea."
"Put bluntly, I don't care about that."

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brandun

1 February

Simplified Chinese (China)

@Natitan Thank you! Do you think “to be blunt” and “to be frank” sound more like I’m going to say something bad than “to be honest”?

Natitan

1 February

English (US)
English (UK)

@branduhn Yes, a little bit.

Starting a sentence with "To be honest" makes it sound like you are going to say something that might be a little bit disappointing to hear. "To be frank" makes it sound like you are going to say something slightly more disappointing. And "To be blunt" makes it sound like you are going to say something quite disappointing/hard to hear.

But "to be honest" is pretty flexible and can be used to describe something that's only a little bit bad or something that's very bad.

Ex:
"To be honest, I have never heard of that song."
"To be honest, I have never liked you."
Both sound natural even though one is a lot worse than the other.

"To be blunt, I have never heard of that song" might be OK in a context where not hearing a song is really bad for some reason. But other than that, it's a bit unnatural.

Highly-rated answerer

brandun

1 February

Simplified Chinese (China)

@Natitan I get it perfectly. Thanks a lot!

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Can you tell me some alternatives for “honestly” and “to be honest”? I’d like commonly used alternatives, not rare ones.

Can you tell me some alternatives for “honestly” and “to be honest”? I’d like commonly used alternatives, not rare ones. See a translation

"Frankly" and "to be frank" are some good, commonly used alternatives. You can use them exactly the same way as you use "honestly" and "to be honest":Ex:"Frankly, I don't care about that.""To be frank, I have no idea."

Can you tell me some alternatives for “honestly” and “to be honest”? I’d like commonly used alternatives, not rare ones.

"Frankly" and "to be frank" are some good, commonly used alternatives. You can use them exactly the same way as you use "honestly" and "to be honest":

Ex:
"Frankly, I don't care about that."
"To be frank, I have no idea."