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.

  • PlaidBaron@lemmy.world
    3·
    2 days ago

    Please and thank you

    S’il vous plait et merci

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

  • ThePancakeExperiment@feddit.org
    2·
    23 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.)

  • Bieren@lemmy.world
    3·
    2 days ago
    1. 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

  • 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.

  • 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

  • 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")
}
    • 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? :)

          • 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"
  • ocean@lemmy.selfhostcat.comEnglish
    2·
    2 days ago

    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

    • showmeyourkizinti@startrek.websiteOP
      2·
      2 days ago

      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

      • ocean@lemmy.selfhostcat.comEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        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

        • showmeyourkizinti@startrek.websiteOP
          2·
          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

  • RandomVideos@programming.dev
    3·
    2 days ago

    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

  • 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)

  • 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”

        • 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”.

        • 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!

    • bufalo1973@lemm.ee
      1·
      3 days ago

      Gracies -> Mallorca

      Mercés -> Cataluña

      Mercí -> ¿cerca de la frontera con Francia?

  • josteinsn@lemmy.world
    2·
    2 days ago

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