Words for facts and things

La verdad does more work than « the truth ». Tacked on to the end of a sentence as ¿verdad? it is the whole of the English tag question — isn't it, don't they, wasn't he — and it never changes shape: hace calor, ¿verdad?, no lo sabías, ¿verdad?. One fixed word replaces a system that English rebuilds out of the verb every single time. It also opens a sentence: la verdad, no lo sé is « honestly, I do not know ».