I know that in German if someone says “danke”, you reply with “bitte”. Are there any other languages that say “please” to reply to “thank you”, or is it a specifically German thing?
"danke" .... "bitte"
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Greek does the same, we reply to «ευχαριστώ» [efxari'sto] (thanks) with «παρακαλώ» [paraka'lo] (please)
Italian "prego".
Polish (dziękuję - proszę).
I was surprised to hear that in Belgium, it can go like this:
"Merci"
"S'il vous plaît"
which literally translates as:
"Thank you"
"Please"
Sounds very strange to my French ears (and I have the feeling it is invading the restaurant industry in France).
Usually, it would be:
"de rien" (literally: "of nothing") or "Je vous en prie" (hmm, such a set phrase I can't really translate it literally :-/)
"Merci"
"S'il vous plaît"
which literally translates as:
"Thank you"
"Please"
Sounds very strange to my French ears (and I have the feeling it is invading the restaurant industry in France).
Usually, it would be:
"de rien" (literally: "of nothing") or "Je vous en prie" (hmm, such a set phrase I can't really translate it literally :-/)
Same in Russian:
спасибо /spasibo/ - thank you
пожалуйста /pojaluista/ - please
спасибо /spasibo/ - thank you
пожалуйста /pojaluista/ - please
The German etiquette goes like this:
- Bitte schön. (you are giving)
- Danke schön. (you are receiving)
- Bitte schön.
The Hungarian almost follows that:
- Tessék.
- Köszönöm.
- Kérem.
There are not many languages which have 3 different "etiquette words" in that situation, so it is always difficult for a Hungarian to learn which to choose of two. If I am not mistaken Turkish use also 3 different words, and Slovaks (Hungarian influence?) as well.
- Bitte schön. (you are giving)
- Danke schön. (you are receiving)
- Bitte schön.
The Hungarian almost follows that:
- Tessék.
- Köszönöm.
- Kérem.
There are not many languages which have 3 different "etiquette words" in that situation, so it is always difficult for a Hungarian to learn which to choose of two. If I am not mistaken Turkish use also 3 different words, and Slovaks (Hungarian influence?) as well.
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To mine too. Waiters in London have started saying “you’re welcome”, but that is because they learnt their English by watching American movies. Well brought-up English children know you should never respond to “thank you”.
Waiters in America have started saying "no problem" instead of "you're welcome". According to the "how-to-behave" rules this is said to be rather impolite. But I think not saying anything when someone else says "thank you" is considered very coarse manners. It is highly interesting to learn that this is handled so differently in England. What is the person who has been thanked supposed to do (in England)? Just ignoring the "thank you"?
When I learned English, my (British) English book taught me to respond "don't mention it; it's a pleasure (my pleasure); not at all; any time; etc.".
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To me "je vous en prie" is more polite than "de rien" by the way but what I mean is that I can't give a literal translation of "je vous en prie" ("I pray you of it"?!!
) That's most likely German influence though.
To me "je vous en prie" is more polite than "de rien" by the way but what I mean is that I can't give a literal translation of "je vous en prie" ("I pray you of it"?!!
No I meant like Italian Prego and English Pray. Pray in English was used to mean "please", though unlike Prego, wasn't used as a reply to "Thank you".
Wilt thou answer me? Pray!
You're right. In this context je vous en prie is an idiom meaning "you're welcome", of course, but in other contexts it does means "please". (A more literal rendering would be "I beg of you".)
It is quite common to say nothing in response to "Thank you" in England; it is not considered coarse manners here - but if I buy something in a shop and say "Thank you", the shop assistant sometimes responds with "Thank you", or "No, thank you", with a heavy contrastive stress on "you", which implies "You shouldn't be thanking me; I should be thanking you". This is difficult for speakers of languages that don't have contrastive stress.
To me "je vous en prie" is more polite than "de rien" by the way but what I mean is that I can't give a literal translation of "je vous en prie" ("I pray you of it"?!!
Surprisingly, there is the same construction in Russian:
- Спасибо. (Thank you)
- Я вас умоляю! (I beg you - hard to say what is being begged for, maybe not to mention)
It is used semi-jocular and was peculiar to the Jewish potois, and maybe it was just a French loan/
That would be a strange usage. If there's an initial "bitte" the second "bitte" afterwards sounds out of place.
So I'd use it as in English:
A: Bitte
B: Danke
A: Gern geschehen (or something similar)
I would only use "bitte" after "danke" when there is no initial "bitte".
A: (gives something/does somebody a favour/etc.)
B: Danke
A: Bitte ("Gern geschehen" would also be correct)
Thank you everyone for the interesting information.
......but remember: I am not asking how to say "please" and "thank you" in every possible language. I am asking which languages use the SAME WORD to offer someone something and to respond to their thanks.