Hi, Noticed that fun trivia people seem to either come from or live in so many parts of the world. Was wondering if people would mind posting how to say hello, goodbye and thank you, in different languages. It was a topic of discussion at work last night and thought this would be a good place to ask. If you could also add a phonetic spelling of them to help a little with pronunciation that would be great.
Ta (tar) Jacqui.
PS. Why isn't phonetics spelt 'fon-et-ick-lee'

[ 05-16-2002, 05:02 PM: Message edited by: jacqui ]

In most languages, there are varients... But here goes for French...

Hello can be either "Bonjour" or "Salut"...
The "salut" is more like when you talk to your friends...

Goodbye is "Au Revoir" or "Adieu".

Thank You is "Merci", but can be added with some words. "Merci Beaucoup", "Merci Bien", etc, would be for Thanks A Lot.

Perhaps some others would explain better than me though, for the pronunciation or to explain better the exact meaning of the words...

[ 05-16-2002, 05:08 PM: Message edited by: aballinshadow ]

Phonectics probably won't help, the Amercians and Brits certainly pronounce some words completely differently. In the UK they pronounce words differently depending on the region, I am thinking of words such as bath and path, the good folk in the North of England murder them!

For me, a Southerner (Yorkshire born but Hampshire bred)....

Hello ... he-loh
Goodbye ... gud-bye
Thank you ... thank yu

WOW! that was quick I can see I came to the right place.
Thats a good point about the phonetics not really helping sue, I forgot all about accents. I know a New Zealander wouldn't write fush und chups for fish and chips but thats how it would sound to me. Thanks for the input. Now I got to head off to bed, will check in again tonight before I go to work.

Jacqui

Here are the ways of saying those three words in the languages in which I am most adept in conversation (besides English, of course):

Chinese:

Hello = 'ni hao ma', 'nin hao', or 'ni chi fan le ma'? The rough translations for these are 'you good, yes?', '(polite) you good' and 'have you eaten yet?' Some Chinese people also say 'hai' and 'wei' (when using the phone).

Thank you = xie xie

Good bye = 'zai jian' or 'bai bai'

Vietnamese:

Hello = chao

Thank you = cam on

Good bye = chao

Spanish:

Hello= Hola (silent “h”)

Goodbye= Adios or chao (less formal)

Thank you= Gracias

Italian:

Hi= Ciao

Goodbye= Arrivederci

Thank you= Grazie

Jazz, in Vietnamese, is there a difference between saying chao as hello and bye? A pitch/stress difference or do the two words sound the same?

German!

hello: Gut tag
bye: auf wiedersehen (or ciao as my Bavarian friends say)
thanks: danke
thank you: danke schon

Italian!
hello: bonjourno
bye: ciao
thank you: grazie

forgot to add:
Canadian
thank you: Thank you kindly (you may add 'eh' if you want to, but you don't need to)

[ 05-16-2002, 07:52 PM: Message edited by: Lady Macbeth ]

Arabic:
Thank You: Shukran
Hello: Marhaba, or A'salamu a'lekum
Goodbye: Ma' Salema

Ma' Salema,

Corinne

Nope...they are the same word Lanni...

Dhanyavaad=thankyou (Hindi)
Nandri= thankyou (Tamil)
M'goi sai/dor je (Cantonese)
Meherbaani = thankyou (Gujerati)

There are four ways to say hello in Czech

Dobry den - (good day, the most formal)

Nazdar! - (to success, less formal)

ahoj! - (pronounced ahoy - apparently a lot of Czechs ran away to join the British navy during the first world war and brought the greeting back with them)

Ciao - (like the Bavarians, I see. There's a teenage variant going around these days pronounced something like chuss, but I haven't heard it for a while, so maybe it's Out)

There are two more formal ways of saying goodbye

nas hledanou (like aufwiedersehen or au revoir)

sbohem (go with God - goodbye forever)

ahoj and ciao work as greetings and farewells too, which is why when my students are leaving, they often say, 'Hi!'

I forgot - a question. Jazz, is the Vietnamese chao really Vietnamese, or is it an Eastern variant of ciao?

[ 05-16-2002, 11:25 PM: Message edited by: Dobrov ]

Here in Southern France, with more Mediterranean influences, Bonjour is of course the most common way of saying Hello. But with people with whom you're on a more familiar basis "Salut" is the equivalent of Hi.
Many rather stuffy people say, "I don't like it when you just say Salut". But they're rather stuffy.
Here we almost always say "Ciao" spelled "Tchao" to get the ch sound the way it's said in Italian.
Otherwise the more formal is "Bonne soirée" when you take leave of someone, and "Bonne nuit" is only for wishing someone good night when they are really going to go to sleep.
Bonsoir is how you greet someone in the later afternoon, and the people who'd come into my office and I had a running joke for at what time we started saying it. If I meet my neighbor in the elevator coming home from work, I'll greet her with "bonsoir".

A newer custom is beginning amongst kids, "Tchô" hope the circumflex appears. I personally find it silly but they don't.
And they're now using it for hello as well as goodbye.

By the way, I could probably count on the fingers of one hand the times I hear "Comment allez-vous?" per week. And no one would use it for a "How do you do?" substitute.
It would be more like what I would ask my mother-in-law for how she was doing.
Familiar speech would generally be "ça va?" "oui, et toi?"

If someone answers the rhetorical question "ça va?" with "moyen." or worse yet "Bof" you know they are in trouble or not doing well!

I have never ever heard a real live French person say "coucicouça" nor "C'est la vie". I'm still waiting!

Another equivalent of "ça va?" is "ça boum?"
It's like saying, "how the heck are you?"

Merci is definitely what the French say and what is more, you must say it after every single gesture that requires it. It is absolutely essential.
Children must also say "Merci Maman" or else some old fashioned mothers will say, "Merci qui, merci mon chien?" to prompt them!
Merci beaucoup and Mille fois merci for more emphasis.
The common answer to that is "de rien" or "je vous en prie".

One more thing, elevator etiquette, when you take leave of someone in the elevator you wish them a good day, "bonne journée".

Some suggestions:
1.
"Hello": most youngsters just say 'hi' or 'hallo' as everybody does (hm)
Flemish speakers of Dutch will normally say:
"Dag" ( + first name if they know it)
"Goeie morgen" in the morning, "Goeie middag" from noon on and "Goeienavond" in the evening.

Pronunciation of 'dag' : with the same final sound as in Scottish pronunciation of loch
The a of 'dag' is short.
2.
Goodbye: Tot later. ( See you later.)
Tot ziens. (See you.)

As Flemings have a lot of "French infiltrations" in their every day language you will often hear: "Saluutjes".
Some take over Dutch habits such as " Daaaag" (very long a-sound with a lot of modulation).

By the way: we normally don't say anything like 'Good night' but "Slaap wel"; " Wel te ruste"( a bit solemn).

3.
"Thank you" will become "Dank je wel". And in dialect again Flemings tend to use French: "Merci"

Linguistically Flemings are in a "transitional area". So many of us mix up languages. Youngsters
enjoy saying: Bye. Ciao.
And most of the time slang terms are even more popular, e.g. as an alternative for "Hello":
"En da gaat?" (= "Things are o.k.?" - meant as a rhetorical question).

We speak Gujerati at home and Ren33 has already given you 'thank you' which incidentially, I didn't know how to say - we usually speak a mixture of English and Gujerati - will have to ask the folks!!!

Hello: Namaste (formal and also the same word as is used in Hindi) Kem chho is less formal ('Ke' is pronounced at the back of the throat. 'Chh' as in 'church' and 'o' as in 'north')

Goodbye: Aav Jo - which literally means 'come back'.

Some religious greetings are also used as people are leaving, such as: 'Jai si Krishna'.

Hmmm, this has made me think. I will have to ask the folks when they get back from holiday in a couple of weeks....

Salamat= thankyou(Tagalog)
Arigatou = thankyou (Japanese)

The Vietnamese chao is a native term...and is actually pronounced "jow"...a bit different than the Italian term I think!

Just until we get a real Turk here, "Merhaba" for hello in Turkish, and "gulegule" goodbye.

Zimba is "stapler", long story.

Aloha is hi in Hawaiian and good bye.
Howzit is how lots of us said, "how's it going?"
mahalo is thank you.
mele kahikimaka is Merry Christmas.

flem already covered most of the Dutch translations in giving the Flemish ones, but I'd like to add some things.

quote:

---

By the way: we normally don't say anything like 'Good night' but "Slaap wel"; " Wel te ruste"( a bit solemn).

---

In Dutch we never say "slaap wel", instead everyone says "welterusten"...

Amongst younger people "doei" is very frequently used for "goodbye" and "hoi" for "hello".

Wow Bruyere... You obviously KNOW how to explain things! You explained so much better than me, I think I should erase my post...

But wasn't there a song by Boudewijn Degroot with: "Slaap zacht, mijnheer de President"?

In Finnish thank you is kiitos (pronounced keetos)
hello is hei (hay) and goodbye is hei hei.

so it's hei hei from me!

In Malay (or Indonesian);

Apa khabar? - How're you?
Terima kasih - Thank you
Selamat jalan - Goodbye
Jumpa lagi - See you later

-----------------------------------

Ren and Ally, add the following to Hindi/Gujerati/Punjabi (the languages have similar roots) as well;

Shukriya - thank you

The other day my French students asked me how to say "bon appetit" and someone answered, "Enjoy your meal" and I said, "sure, but we just don't have as formalized a way of saying it as in Europe."
I mean, even in France, I've seen etiquette experts for the really upper crust occasions say that it sounded quite "common" so not to do it.
But if you don't here, you'll pass for a boor.

Even now that people are finally bringing their lunches to work in France, if someone sees you eating at your desk they send out a cheerful "bon appetit".

Some families have different customs too.
Aballsinshadow, you forget that I cannot give the quebecois equivalents, so stick close to us.
I have never lived in Canada after all!

Around here, most people ask you if you slept well, and yet in English it sounds funny and makes me want to say grouchily, "yes so what is it to you?" because it sounds like I look like a wreck!
Sorry, but it's just that some formulas for politeness as we call them in French, don't work in English!