The Thread That Helps You Speak Multiple Foreign Languages!

[southern california guy]

Ok I will start with the phrase "How are you?"

 

 

 

¿Cómo está usted?   Spanish

 

Comment allez-vous?  French

 

Wie geht es Ihnen? German

 

Bạn khỏe không? Vietnamese

 

Kumusta? Filipino

 

 

Feel free to correct any translation mistakes that I might have made.  And please add other languages, and phrases.  But it might be easiest if we stick to languages that use the latin alphabet.

 

Soon we will be incredible linguists.

 

 

 

[Spem in alium]

Nice idea!

 

Come stai (inf.), come sta (frm.)?  - Italian.

Kif-int/kif-inti (sing.), kif intom (frm.)?  - Maltese. (Kif is pronounced a little like Keyf)

 

Edited July 24, 2013 by Spem in alium

[southern california guy]

It dawned on me that this starts to get very involved very quickly.  Especially when you start explaining how you answer.

 

Spanish isn't too bad.

 

¿Cómo está usted? (formal)

¿Cómo estás? (informal)             Answer:  "Estoy bien" (I am well), "Estoy asi asi" (I am so so), "Estoy malo" (I am bad), "¿Y tu? (And you? -- informal), "¿Y usted? (And you? formal)

 

French is similar.

 

Comment allez-vous?                   Answer   "Je vais tres bien" (I am very well),  "Je vais ça va" (I am okay), "et vous?" (And you?)

 

 

I know the question in German and Filipino, but I don't honestly know the answers.

 

 

And Vietnamese (Viet) gets a little complicated.  The Vietnamese use pronouns (titles) that refer to age, sex, and status.

 

Bạn khỏe không?  ("Bạn" just means friend, and it can be replaced with "Anh", "Em", "Chi", "Bac", "Co")

 

"Anh" --  a male who is the same age or older than the speaker. Can be an older brother, or the speaker is a girlfriend.

"Em" --  a younger sibling, or the speakers girlfriend.  If a man refers to a woman with this pronoun, then it is like he is coming on to her and pretending that she is his girlfriend.

"Chị" --  a female who is the same age or older than the speaker.  Can be an older sister.

"Cô" -- an aunt, or females who are significantly older than the speaker.  Or to be polite with a woman that you don't know.

 

 

So somebody might ask me (I am a guy) "Anh khỏe không?"  And I would answer by giving myself the same title "Anh khỏe" (I am fine), "Anh không khỏe." (I am not fine).  "không" means "no".

 

If somebody asked "Bạn khỏe không?", then I could still answer "Anh khỏe". (And that is pronounced something like -- awe-n kwey-uh)

 

At least Viet is simple.. in the sense that it has no plural, and no verb forms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 6, 2013 by southern california guy