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.

  • ThePancakeExperiment@feddit.org
    2·
    21 hours 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.)

  • hitmyspot@aussie.zone
    3·
    3 days ago

    For me: English, Irish, french, German, Indonesian, Malaysian (same as Indonesian), japanese I’ve thank you in Turkish, Thai,

    For Irish Please is: le do thoil (é). Translates as; by your will (it). Pronounce : le duh hull ay.

    For thank you: Go raibh (míle) maith agat. Translates as may (a thousand) good things be/fall upon you. Pronounce : guh rev mee-la moh a-gut

    For pronunciation, I’m using Munster dialect. It can be quite different for other dialects.

    Other languages seem to be covered by others, so I thought I’d add the Irish in more detail.

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 @pawb.socialEnglish
    2·
    3 days ago

    English, Spanish, Japanese.

    Please, and thank you.

    Por favor y gracias. (Pour fah-vore ee grassy ahs)

    Kudasai, arigato. (Or if you wanna be extra polite: onegaishimasu, arigato gozaimasu) (Ku-dah sigh, are-ee gato/own ee guy mosh, are-ee gato go sigh moss)

    I know “please” in German, but not thank you. Bitte.

  • yool_ooloo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    1 day ago

    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

    • hitmyspot@aussie.zone
      5·
      3 days ago

      Aujourd’hui means today. You’re looking for: s’il vous/te plait.

      In German, bitte is please (and part of you’re welcome) but regenbogen means 🌈, so youre still spreading happiness.

      I remember I once told a German person ‘ich besuche dich diese wochenende.’ I’ll visit you this weekend. I meant to wish them a nice weekend. They were quite surprised as we met in a professional work setting, not social, lol.

    • foliekatt@feddit.nu
      1·
      2 days ago

      Swede here. “Tillhör alla” means ”belongs to everyone”. There isn’t a precise word for “please” in Swedish, we say thanks instead. Or sometimes we use the phrase “could you be so kind to…”. I struggle to say please in English and I probably sound harsh and bad-mannered.

  • jwr1@kbin.earth
    181·
    3 days ago

    Do programming languages count? :)

    Here’s Go:

    package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
    fmt.Println("Please and Thank You")
}
          • PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@feddit.uk
            2·
            2 days ago

            Here’s a horrific example of bash and JS mashed together

            echo "console.log(process.argv[2])" | node - "Please and thank you"

            or bash and python if that’s your thing?

            echo "import sys; print(sys.argv[1])" | python - "Please and thank you"

            Or Bash, JS AND Python if you’re feeling extra masochistic

            echo "console.log(\"import sys; print(sys.argv[1])\")" | node | python - "Please and thank you"
    • jwr1@kbin.earth
      1·
      2 days ago

      Why is it that this got the most upvotes, compared to the more genuine comments in this thread? :)

  • DeuxChevaux@lemmy.world
    9·
    3 days ago

    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)

  • Mr Fish@lemmy.world
    7·
    3 days ago

    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.

  • owatnext@lemmy.world
    6·
    3 days ago

    “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)

  • Nibodhika@lemmy.world
    6·
    3 days ago

    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.

      • Nibodhika@lemmy.world
        4·
        3 days ago

        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”

        • NightFantom@slrpnk.net
          3·
          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!

        • Rose@slrpnk.net
          3·
          2 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”.

    • bufalo1973@lemm.ee
      1·
      3 days ago

      Gracies -> Mallorca

      Mercés -> Cataluña

      Mercí -> ¿cerca de la frontera con Francia?

  • Onionguy@lemm.ee
    5·
    3 days ago

    German Bitte, Danke

    English U KNOW

    French S’il vous plâit, merci

    Spanish Por favor, graçias

    Italian Per favore, grazie

    Czech Prossim, djekuju

    …6 ig :D

  • stelelor@lemmy.ca
    4·
    2 days ago

    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

  • dave@hal9000@lemmy.world
    4·
    3 days ago

    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

      • dave@hal9000@lemmy.world
        2·
        3 days ago

        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…

  • PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@feddit.uk
    3·
    2 days ago

    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)

    • Dozzi92@lemmy.world
      1·
      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.