Ok, Lemmy, let’s another play a game!
And I honestly think this one’s more important.
Post how many languages in which you can say Please and Thank You, including your native language. If you can, please provide which languages and how to phonetically say them so the rest of us can learn!
I spent a fair amount of bopping around Europe in the early Aughts and as a native English speaker, I found everyone appreciating my bad mangled attempts at politeness.
English: Please : Thank you
French: Aujourd’hui : Merci
Spanish: Por Favor : Gracias
German: Regenbogen : Danke
Swedish: tillhör alla : tack
EDIT: This was just a small play at poetry as I wish I knew all of these languages but do not
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In the order I learned them:
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🇷🇴 Romanian: Vă rog / Mulțumesc (native)
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🇨🇵 French: S’il-vous-plaît / Merci
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🇬🇧 English: Please / Thank you
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🇪🇦 Spanish: Por favor / Gracias
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🇯🇵 Japanese: Onegai / Arigato
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🇨🇳 Mandarin: Qing / Xiè xie
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🇮🇹 Italian: Per favore / Grazie
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🇩🇪 German: Bitte / Danke
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🇷🇺 Russian: Pozhalusta / Spasiba
Thanks I knew spasiba but Pozhalusta I just learned.
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Please and thank you
Te rog si multumesc
Bitte und danke
I dont know how to explain how to say a word to someone if they dont speak romanian
Thanks Romanian sounds quite challenging
Speaking romanian is the easiest part of the language. I have heard from people trying to learn the language that the grammar is hard
I know some, I guess, hope I do not butcher them:
German(native): Bitte/ Danke (sehr) or Vielen Dank,
English: please/ thank you (very much),
Japanese: どうぞ or おねがいします or ください/ (どうも)ありがとう(ございます) (Which is douzo (when you offer someone something, I think, onegaishimasu/kudasai (if you want something or someone to do something, which is following the request.)/ (domo)arigatou(gozaimasu),
Norwegian: vær så snill / (tusen) takk,
(Which is like “Sei so gut/lieb”/ “Tausend Dank” in German.),Romanian: vă rog or te rog (formal/informal)/ mulțumesc ((foarte) mult) or mersi (mult) (ă is a short a, I guess and ț is like the ts from “its”, or a German z)
French: s’il vous plait (that one I had to look up on how to write)/ merci
Polish: proszę (bardzo)/ dzięki or dziękuję (bardzo) (Like proshe/ djenki/djenkuje)(ę is nasalized)
Portuguese: faz favor or por favor/ obrigado or obrigada (male/female) (o is spoken like an u) (I do not know much Portuguese (like French and Polish), in my book (European Portuguese faz favor and por favor are used, but I do not know the differences.)
So, this is an odd one because I travel a lot and try to learn basic words in local languages, usually hello, please, thank you, sorry/excuse me, and numbers are my basic go to. For some reason, in a number of languages “please” isn’t something you get by default. I’ve found this particularly in southeast Asia.
I can say please and thank you (and generally converse and read) in French and Spanish. In Spanish I find myself using “por favor” a lot. “You’re welcome” takes different forms in Spanish depending where your are, and what’s polite in one place can be confusing or even rude in another.
I can say hello, please, and thank you in German, Italian, and Greek. I mostly said hello and thank you in Greece and Italy, rarely please. I’ve never actually used German in situ, I just know it from pop culture I think.
I can say hello and thank you (and various other things) in Japanese, Chinese (Mandarin), Malay, Thai, Lao, Khmer, and Vietnamese. I might need to think hard for a minute or get a quick refresher so that I don’t mix some of them up sometimes, especially when I’m moving from one country to the next… I don’t think I ever learned please specifically in any of these, though I think it’s kind of built into the other things you say in a lot of them (especially Thai).
So, please and thank you, 6 for sure. But if the goal is to talk about language basics for getting around as a visitor, I would say 13 :)
That fascinating. I wonder if it’s a cultural thing or a grammar thing? Most Asian countries have a stereotype of being polite so I’d take a guess at the grammar of Asian languages making it harder to put a mood changing word in a question maybe,
Yeah I definitely don’t know enough to say. You can definitely translate please in translators for those languages, but for whatever reason I just haven’t been seeing it in language basics. Once I spend more time there I’ll learn more.
For Thai specifically, you say “ka” (if you’re a woman) or “kraub”/“kaub”/“kaup” (if you’re a man) at the end of everything you say. Whenever you finish a sentence you say it. I saw a woman relating a phone number, and she would say “ka” after every number. It’s all about politeness.
- Merican. Gods language and the best language. You know I speak better Merican that anyone ever did. The best. Everyone says it. One time I was talking to Elon. I call him fuck boy the cum dumpster. No one treats me like he does. But, he was telling me you speak the best Merican. No one can talk as good as you do. Everyone says it. Maybe I should write a book about how good my English is. It would be the most huge book ever.
/s
You speak such good Merican that I’m going to trust you with our nuclear codes
Please and thank you
S’il vous plait et merci
And in ASL but that dont translate to text too well.
Only English. The words are entirely different in the other languages I know.
You know don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Just trying fucking it up is still heaps better then not even trying.
Estonian: Palun / Aitäh
English: Please / Thank you
Two languages. English and Maori.
Thank you in Maori is “kia ora” (key-ah or-ah, but mostly said more like k-your-ah). Literally translates to “be well”, kia meaning be, ora meaning life/wellness.
Please in Maori is a bit less clear. There is the word “koa” (I don’t know how to phonetically write it, but all the letters are pronounced the same as above), but that’s a concept that came with pakeha (European settlers). Before that, it was more about the tone of the request.
Edit: actually I do know more, but English and Maori are the two main languages I know any of.
Hmm.
German, French, English, Japanese (seriously, I never realized how much language I took away from martial arts classes! And in my post about counting, a significant percent of other people did, too), Spanish, Esperanto. I think that’s it - 6.
I can say “blindingly drunk” in Russian, which seems useful. Also, “trust, but verify,” - thanks, Raegan. Two phrases, neither of which are “please or thank you,” but matching the cardinality of your question so I should get a half-point.
Define language… Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, English, French, German, BHS (Bosnian Croatian, Serbian), Esperanto, Czech, Russian, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish… i think that’s it.
Pretty cool that you can say “please” in Danish since the word doesn’t exist in the language.
Vær så venlig?
But what about cobol and C++? /s
Bissäguet, Merci (Swiss German)
Bitte, Danke (German)
Please, thank you (English)
S’il vous plait, merci (French)
Par favore, grazie (Italian)
Bonvolu, dankon (Esperanto)
Onegaishimasu, Arigatougozaimasu (Japanese)“Please” and “thank you”. English.
(Pleez ahnd thank yehw)
“Oes gwelwch chi’n dda” ac “diolch”. Welsh/Cymraeg.
(Oys gwel ook kheen thza ak deeolkh)
“Por favor” y “gracías”. Spanish/español.
(Pour fah vour ee gras ee AHS)
Welsh is amazing I never knew them but I love how “Welshman” they sound.
In order of fluency (for languages spoken, although German was only studied and any fluency has rusted out):
Portuguese: Por Favor/Obrigado
English: Please/Thank you
Spanish: Por Favor/Gracias
Farsi: Lotfan/Merci (plus many more elaborate ways of thanking)
German: Bitte/Danke
For languages I don’t speak at all, but only know because of friends who are native speakers:
French: s’il vous plait/merci
Romanian: Va rog/multumesc
Italian: Per favore/Grazie
Oh I like the Romanian please. That sound fun to say.
Yeah, Romanian is so weird to me as a native Portuguese speaker - there are so many cognates. I am good friends with a Romanian family and when they talk all sorts of words are completely understandable coming from Portuguese…