All Slavic Languages: Have a nice day

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Natabka

Senior Member
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Ukraine (Ukrainian)
Hello, foreros!

In this thread we have been having a discussion about Ukrainian and Russian ways of greeting somebody vs. saying "Have a nice day!" Have a look:
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1233110

It has occurred that similar things have been discussed in the Russian subforum:
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1115443

I say that both in Russian and in Ukrainian we usually say "Добрый день" (ru) /"Добрий день" (uk) to say hello and "Хорошего дня" (ru)/"Гарного дня" (uk) to end the conversation by wishing a nice day.

The question is:
What could be the Ukrainian equivalents to the Russian phrase "хорошего дня!"? Can "доброго дня!" (uk) be used in this case?

Moderator note:
Natabka asked me to broaden the topic; thus the question now is:
Is the phrase "Have a nice day!" common in other Slavic languages for ending a conversation? That is, a phrase with "nice/good" plus "day" for saying good bye - similar to the English phrase.
sokol
 
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    Xopxe

    Member
    Ukraine
    Russian
    Both Гарного дня and доброго дня have an air of being not colloquial, a bit unnatural. Гарного дня is a correct "literature" form. Доброго дня in Russian sound even more unnatural.
     
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    Natabka

    Senior Member
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    Ukraine (Ukrainian)
    Xopxe said:
    Both Гарного дня and доброго дня have an air of being not colloquial, a bit unnatural. Гарного дня is a correct "literature" form. Доброго дня in Russian sound even more unnatural.
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    Of course these phrases are not colloquial! :) It's neutral language and quite natural! What would you say, Хорхе, to somebody when you want to wish them "Have a nice day!" ? I would say "Гарного дня!"

    Anyway, in the thread in the Russian subforum they say that "хорошего дня" sounds odd when greeting somebody but may be used at parting - not in the colloquial context, of course. I have assumed that its English equivalent is "Have a nice day". In Ukrainian this phrase is also not very common - I mean, I don't hear everyone whishing a nice day when saying good-bye. With my friends we never use this phrase. It it common to wish a "nice" holiday/weekend/trip, etc. but not "day". Though, when you were to say "Хорошего дня" (Have a nice day?) in Ukrainian, would it be "Доброго дня/Гарного дня" or something else?
     
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    Xopxe

    Member
    Ukraine
    Russian
    Have a nice day! - это американизм; если вам необходимость именно так, по-американски высказаться, то подходит и доброго дня и хорошего дня. Но звучит ненатурально все-таки и по-украински и по-русски. Здесь, во Львове можно сказать на прощание "Гарного дня" и это не будет звучать очень искуственно, просто не совсем обычно.
     
    Azori

    Azori

    Senior Member
    Bratislava, Slovakia
    Slovak
    In Slovak, when saying good-bye, one can hear: "Príjemný/Pekný zvyšok dňa!" Literally meaning "a pleasant/nice rest of the day." Also "Pekný deň prajem." is sometimes used instead of "Dobrý deň."
     
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    dudasd

    dudasd

    Senior Member
    Serbia
    Serbo-Croatian
    Хорхе is right, it sounds English. In Serbian it's rather unusual to say "Želim ti prijatan/lep dan", though it can be heard, as well as "Prijatan dan želim" (this one I hear among older people, so I guess it can be infuelce of German). When departing or leaving, we use just "Prijatno!" (Meaning both "good bye" and "have a nice day".)
     
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    trance0

    Senior Member
    Slovene
    "Želim ti lep dan" would be more formal. I use it occasionally when I want to be more polite or for stylistic reasons. "Prijeten dan!" or "Želim ti/vam prijeten dan!" are also frequently used. It is true that you would hardly ever hear the longer versions with "želim".
     
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    Ptak

    Senior Member
    Moskau
    Rußland
    Xopxe said:
    Have a nice day! - это американизм; если вам необходимость именно так, по-американски высказаться, то подходит и доброго дня и хорошего дня. Но звучит ненатурально ... по-русски.
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    I agree.
     
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    texpert

    Senior Member
    Czech
    lior neith said:
    In Slovak, when saying good-bye, one can hear: "Príjemný/Pekný zvyšok dňa!" Literally meaning "a pleasant/nice rest of the day." Also "Pekný deň prajem." is sometimes used instead of "Dobrý deň."
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    Same in Czech: Příjemný zbytek dne or přejeme vám hezký den. But it is a typical phrase to hear on the radio and I always find it a bit pretentious in real conversations. It is not infrequent, though.
     
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    Natabka

    Senior Member
    Home
    Ukraine (Ukrainian)
    Hmm, so what do we have here? Judging from the comments posted so far, it seems we can generalise the discussion like this:

    Not common in:

    Ukrainian
    Serbian
    Russian
    Czech (pretentious
    in real conversation
    - #12 by Texpert)

    Used in:

    Slovak
    Bulgarian
    Croatian
    Slovene (the long form is uncommon/formal (#10 by trance0) but the short one - "lep dan" - is used)

    And if used, can we say that generally this phrase is more formal in Slavic languages than in English?
     
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    texpert

    Senior Member
    Czech
    Natabka said:
    Not common in:


    Czech (pretentious
    in real conversation
    - #12 by Texpert)

    And if used, can we say that generally this phrase is more formal in Slavic languages than in English?
    Click to expand...


    Hi there,
    perhaps some people would not find it so pretentious as me (those indulging in courtesies). But it is prevalently heard on the radio and in diplomatic circles :)
    To me, the resume in definitely true. I frequently say "have a nice day" in English but almost never in my mother tongue.
     
    Azori

    Azori

    Senior Member
    Bratislava, Slovakia
    Slovak
    In Slovak it does sound more formal than in English, but still it is not that unusual as it seems to be in Czech. Even today I've heard from a friend of mine "Želám ešte príjemný zvyšok soboty." But I must say I find the Czech version somewhat more formal. I wouldn't say pretentious, just for some reason it sounds more formal to me in Czech.
     
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    texpert

    Senior Member
    Czech
    The same goes for me. One usually hears more kind wishes in Slovakian in a minute than during an hour long conversation in Czech.
    But listen folks, I chicken out. No more pretentious quotes, please. I don't speak for all Czechs here :)
    Just an observation of a lifelong BBC enthusiast:
    "have a nice day" usage ratio in real/radio talk is about
    5:1 in English
    1:5 in Czech.
    Then again - to mess things up a bit - Czechs and possibly other Slavs would use some other phrase at the moment when the English speaker says his have a nice day. The first that comes to mind is měj(te) se (hezky, dobře) (have a good time - said especially when parting) that can serve as a perfect substitute and could even be translated as "have a nice day" at times.
     
    H

    Heroj_MKD

    Member
    Macedonian
    In Macedonian:
    пријатно, пријатен ден, ти посакувам пријатен ден, ви поскаувам пријатен ден
     
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