Ask Lemmy

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

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

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.

Three. English, Spanish, and German.

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.

Interesting, I seem to know "thank you" in a few languages, but not "please". I wonder what that indicates...

Spanish: por favor, gracias

French: sil vous plait, merci

Indonesian: ?, terima kasih

Mandarin: ?, xie xie

Japanese: ?, arigato

German: ?, danke

Italian: ?, grazie

Aussie: oi, cheers/ta (/s)

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 :)

English : Please, thank you

French: S'il te plait, merci

Spanish: Por favor, gracias

Japanese: お願い、ありがとう(oh neh gah i, arigatoo)

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.

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

Please + thank you

Sil vous plait et Merci

Bitte + Danke

Por favor + Gracias

Shukran thanks in Arabic but I don't know how to say please.

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.

please two. thank you five.

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

English

German

Spanish

Arabic

Korean

6

I am unsure how to best do the pronouncing, but en Español: por favor (last part of favor is more pronounced) gracias (first part is more pronounced) In English: please thank you (pronounce more the part that makes sense for the situation)

What about you :)

Please (English)

• kiitos (Finnish)
• chōdai / kudasai (Japanese)
• s’il vous plaît (French)
• por favor (Spanish)
• bitte (German)

Thank you (English)

• kiitos (Finnish)
• arigatō (gozaimas) / dōmo (Japanese)
• gracias (Spanish)
• merci (French)
• grazie (Italian)
• kamsahamnida (Korean)
• xiexie (Chinese)
• tänan (Estonian)
• danke (German)
• spasiba (Russian)
• tack (Svedish)

Zero