Ask Lemmy

Please and thank you

S'il vous plait et merci

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

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

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.)

English and Japanese (I don't speak much Japanese at all but I know these specific word!)

2 English and German

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)

Do programming languages count? :)

Here's Go:

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
    fmt.Println("Please and Thank You")
}

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)

Zero. 🖕🏻

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.

"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)

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.

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.

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)

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.

Estonian: Palun / Aitäh

English: Please / Thank you

Swedish, German, English, Spanish,

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

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

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 :)