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
this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2025
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Only English. The words are entirely different in the other languages I know.
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.
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.)
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
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
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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 (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)
I love the fact that Finnish doesn't have a way of saying please, so you just thank the person instead. The first time I was in Finland I learned to say "excuse me, I don't speak Finnish, do you speak English?", and because that was the only thing I learned I wanted to learn to pronounce it correctly, so I took the time and effort to learn how to pronounce it. The problem when I do this, is that most people don't learn basic niceties, and even the ones that do tent to mangle pronunciation, so native people think I'm kidding because it sounds like some native saying they don't speak the language. Also because the majority of interactions with people are simple "hello", "thanks", "bye" I like to pick up on those by listening to people, but not by studying it or anything.
All of that setup for this stupid story: One day I go to a supermarket and the lady tells me "Moi" (hi) and with the same cheerful tone of voice I've seen people use I replied with "Moi Moi" (bye bye). I had seen people use both Moi and Moi Moi, but hadn't noticed that one was hi and the other was bye, so I was accidentally cheerfully rude, and I still feel bad about it. If you're out there, I'm so sorry supermarket lady in Helsinki, I'm just a dumb tourist trying to be nice.
I'm Finnish and I've had so many similar "awkward" situations. I often use "tänks" (or thanks) and a few time the cashier thought I'm speaking English :D
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.
English
German
Spanish
Arabic
Korean
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
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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 :)
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please two. thank you five.
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.
Zero