this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2025

73 points (92.9% liked)

Ask Lemmy

31152 readers

2416 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

6) No US Politics.

Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected] or [email protected]

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

How many languages can you say Please and Thank You in? (startrek.website)

submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

83 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

top 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

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.)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Please and thank you

S'il vous plait et merci

And in ASL but that dont translate to text too well.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

I just looked up please and thank you in ASL and now I know. Thank you.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

English and Japanese (I don't speak much Japanese at all but I know these specific word!)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

That orange man has never said Please in his entire lifetime

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

You speak such good Merican that I'm going to trust you with our nuclear codes

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

2 English and German

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

i can say thank you in more languages than i can say please in.

perhaps that says something about me

Obligado

Dankeschön

Merci Beaucop

Thank you

Gracias

Domo Arigato (only in latin type, i have no chance of reading/spelling anything in Kanji)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

You've nailed my languages:

Por favor (you'll see this later)

Bitte (had to check the spelling, but I knew how to say it)

S'il vous plait

Pleeeeeeeeeease

Por favor

I dunno about Japanese.

I can also say it in sign language.

For reference, I am a 37 year old dude from Jersey. I took French in middle and high school (we got to go to Quebec in the eighth grade because someone thought that was a good idea). We have large spanish and Portuguese speaking populations, and my mom's stepmother was also from Cuba, so we got some lessons early on. My high school girlfriend did the German thing so I picked up a little (ich haba einen bruder). Wife speaks pretty fluent sign language. Can also say Kurwa, but that's neither please nor thank you.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I can only speak three but I really used to try to learn some others but suck at it. I praise people who can learn grammatically challenging languages

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I’ve found that most people really appreciate even just the attempt at their own language. The fact that you’re trying goes a long way with most people.

Excepting Americans and sometimes the French. /s

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I fully agree! Paraphrasing the Nelson Mandela quote that got me into college and grad school “if you speak to a man in a language he understands it goes to his head, but if you speak to a man in his language it goes to his heart.”

Idk I feel my partners English is received well by Americans but yes French and Parisians are something else

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

I actually really like most Parisians the only people in France I found to be rude were those who worked in the tourist areas like the Riviera. But honestly I can’t blame them tourists can be so annoying

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Only English. The words are entirely different in the other languages I know.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

In the order I learned them:

🇷🇴 Romanian: Vă rog / Mulțumesc (native)
🇨🇵 French: S'il-vous-plaît / Merci
🇬🇧 English: Please / Thank you
🇪🇦 Spanish: Por favor / Gracias
🇯🇵 Japanese: Onegai / Arigato
🇨🇳 Mandarin: Qing / Xiè xie
🇮🇹 Italian: Per favore / Grazie
🇩🇪 German: Bitte / Danke
🇷🇺 Russian: Pozhalusta / Spasiba

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

Thanks I knew spasiba but Pozhalusta I just learned.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Define language… Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, English, French, German, BHS (Bosnian Croatian, Serbian), Esperanto, Czech, Russian, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish… i think that’s it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Pretty cool that you can say "please" in Danish since the word doesn't exist in the language.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Vær så venlig?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

But what about cobol and C++? /s

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Thanks Romanian sounds quite challenging

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Speaking romanian is the easiest part of the language. I have heard from people trying to learn the language that the grammar is hard

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Mostly thanks because that's the only word I learned when I'm visiting.

obrigado, obrigada - Portuguese Bitte/Danke - Deutsch dack - Dutch Gratzi - Italian Por favor/Gracias - Spanish Takk - norge Merci - French 不好意思。/ 謝謝 - Chinese ありがとう - Japanese Oi cunt / thank ye cunt

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

dack - Dutch

Dutch is alsjeblieft (informal), alstublieft (formal), thanks (informal), dankjewel (informal), or dankuwel (formal). The former probably means "as you desired" in old Dutch, the latter "thank you well", and the formal/informal variants simply insert the right word for "you" (je or u). And then there's thanks being commonly used. Or also bedankt, sounds kinda formal to me as well, not sure when you'd use that instead of dankuwel

Just "dank" (maybe you wrote that and autocorrupt kicked in?) is not really a thing we say, it just means "thank" which you'd also not say by itself in English (unless you're Rocky)

Edit: writing "dank" in an English sentence feels like everyone will think our thank-yous are like dank memes. The pronunciation of the "a" there is as in Clark; the English pronunciation of dank would map to denk in Dutch and means think!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Zero. 🖕🏻

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

Ah yes the Texas thank you 😝

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

Swedish, German, English, Spanish,

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

Estonian: Palun / Aitäh

English: Please / Thank you

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

Please & cheers.

S'il vois plait & merci (beaucoup)

Terog & multzumesc/multzumeme (singular vs. plural thank you)

Bitter & danke

-- & spaseba

-- & tak

Qîng & xìexìe

-- & diàhdiah

Had more, but forgot them. Have forgotten at the Turkish and a Miao language phrases.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Languages I'm fluent:

Spanish (Por favor, Gracias)
Portuguese (Por favor, Obrigado/a)
English (Please, Thank you)

Languages I can mostly understand but I'm a disaster speaking:

Italian (Per favore, Grazie)
Catalan (Si us plau, Merci (Technically Gracies, but most people use Merci))

Languages I can speak small child like phrases and express some simple things (although I'm very rusty in both of them):

Russian (пожалуйста (Pajalsta), спасибо (Spaciba))
German (Bitte, Danke)

Languages I can say "I'm sorry, I don't speak X, do you speak English?" (Which I think is more important than just please and thank you)

French (Si vous plat, Merci)
Dutch ( [don't know this one], dank je)
Finnish ( * , Kiitos)

Languages I can say Please and thank you (because I've seen enough TV in this language):

Japanese (Onegai, Arigato)

* There's no word for please in Finnish, which you'd think makes the language sound harsh, but I think it's the other way around, it makes everyone be polite by default, when going into a coffee shop and saying "one coffee" is the equivalent to "hello, can I please have one coffee, thanks" it's hard to be rude.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Can you expand on the Finnish? Is it engrained in the language somehow?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I don't really speak Finnish, so probably someone can expand better, but AFAIK they don't have a word for Please. When I was in Finland I went to a coffee place with a friend, and noticed he said "yksi kahvi" which literally means one coffee, when he got his coffee he said "Kiitos" (thanks), I noticed no one used any recurring word that could mean Please, so I asked my friend and he said something like "They're all being polite, we just don't have a word for please, one could say something like: I would like a coffee, Thanks. But that's just overcomplicated"

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

Native here. I think this is pretty accurate. Politeness is usually tied to other phrasings or modes of speaking, and as an ESL speaker I just think "please" is just a word that gets sprinkled in. In everyday conversations like buying something, it's kinda more polite to get the thing over with as fast as possible. If you just want a coffee, you don't need more than "hey" and "thanks" to be nice, right?

That said, it's definitely not impossible to be explicitly polite: "Ole hyvä"/"Olkaa hyvä" ("[You] (2p. sg./pl.) be kind") is basically "please" as in "could you do..." or "here you go, have this" or "go ahead and do that" depending on context. "Ole kiltti" ("[You] (2p.sg.) be nice") is "please" as in "would you be especially kind to do..." But as you can see, these are basically direct orders, it's "be kind", not "please be kind".

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

So like impolite would be "give me a coffee", polite is "would you give me a coffee?" instead of "coffee please". Makes sense, thanks!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Gracies -> Mallorca

Mercés -> Cataluña

Mercí -> ¿cerca de la frontera con Francia?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The place I hear Merci daily is Barcelona

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

🤷‍♂️

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago

Zero

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Off the top or my head: English, Spanish, German, Russian (assuming I remember from 35 years ago). On a good day I can remember Thai, but not today.

Spanish and German are well documented here.

So I dated a girl who took Russian in high school. I learned the alphabet. Sometimes I think I can still recite it, other times I stumble.

Phonetically (and likely butchered): speSEEba / paZHAlista

load more comments