Maybe in a train or in a special room you have entered, you've already read the following in your language:

"Please close the door"

I want to know how it reads in your language. I need lots of expressions and in as many languages as possible. It's for a friend. Thanks in advance.

 

I want to start with German:

"Tür bitte schließen"

 

In Portuguese:

"Por favor feche a porta."

 

Czech:

Zavírat dveře prosím.

Jana

 

French: fermez la porte svp.
Italian: chiudete la porta per favore.
Chinese: 請隨手關門 (please close the door as you go)

 

Hello,

In Filipino:

Pakisara/ Pakisarado ang pinto.

Spanish (I hope it's correct. ):

Por favor cierre la puerta.


NTFS

 

In Catalan:

Tanqueu la porta si us plau.


In Spanish:

Por favor, cierren la puerta.

 

Arabic: الرجاء إغلاق الباب.
Hebrew: נא לסגור את הדלת.
Dutch: De deur sluiten alsublieft
Norwegian: Lukke døren vær så god.

 

In Italian, also

"Si prega di chiudere la porta"
or simply
"Chiudere la porta"

 

Σας παρακαλώ, κλείστε την πόρτα. (plural)

Σε παρακαλώ, κλείσε την πόρτα. (singular)

 

"Please open the door" in Trique (SW Mexico).

Quiiya zo' sndo ne naran' zo' tay'aa-xij a.
literally: Make you please and close you door DEC


The first part is a conventionalized phrase used when making polite requests. Verb-Subject-Object word order.

 

I need it for an official announcement, so do I have to use the plural, right?

 

What do you mean by "open"? I asked for "close the door". The rest is totally clear, but was it a typo?

 

Hi whodunit,

Yes, it was a mistake! I don't know why I wrote "open". The sentence means please close the door.


Susan

 

Okay, thanks for this answer and for adding your super-language to my list.

 

hehehe..

On norwegian its: Lukk døren, takk

 

In Zulu, the simple command is :

Vala! = close (the door)!

Making it more polite is tricky because there is a subordinate tense but I think it would be:

Ngicela uvala umnyango! = please close the door

Ngicela = I-would-like
uvala =you-close
umnyango = door

Susan

 

In Basque:

Mesedez, Itxi atea

Mesedez(Please), itxi(close) atea(the door)

 

In Polish -

Proszę zamknąć drzwi! = Please close the door!

Proszę = please
zamykać = infinitive form of closing
drzwi = doors (in Polish doors are only in plural form)

 

In that case I think it's better:

Parakaloume kleinete tin porta.

It is the plural form. But when you use "kleiste" it means to close the door just once. "Kleinete" is continuous --to close it everytime.

Also, parakalo (I ask) is singular. Parakaloume (we ask) is plural.


I cannot use the Greek alphabet from my imac at home. If can wait I'll type it in Greek tomorrow.

 

Thanks for the correction! Jeg lære nå norsk, men jeg kan snakke bare litt!

 

Sí, NTFS es correcto tu español. If you are using a formal register you say "Por favor (usted) cierre la puerta", if not you say "Por favor (tú) cierra la puerta".... in Argentina "Por favor (vos) cerrá la puerta".

 

How is it spelled on signs?

 

Yes, of course. I'm not in a hurry.

 

Dub has already said it in catalan so I'll try with the occitan, the most similar language to the catalan.
it could be something like this:
"Barratz la pòrta"

I'm not sure since the occitan has been separated into other dialects and It's almost lost.
Regards.

 

On a sign I would expect "Se ruega cerrar la puerta."

But I could be wrong...

 

In Slovene, it would be:

PROSIMO ZAPIRAJTE VRATA

 

It's interesting how the word for "door" is similar in Greek and Romance languages. Porta/porta/porte/puerta.

 

Here it goes:

Παρακαλώ κλείνετε την πόρτα.

I think this is the best version.

Hola Outsider!

Regarding the word "porta", it does comes from Italian. There is a Greek word for door: θύρα (thyra), but it's not used anymore as such.

 

In Estonian:

Palun sulgege uks.

or perhaps

Palume uks sulgeda.

Unfortunately I can't recall ever seeing a sign with this request.

All the best,
maver

 

Where's the difference between these two versions?

 

Another way of saying it in German:

"bitte, machen sie die Tür zu"

Vielen Dank!
Marcus

 

zumachen (colloquial) = schließen (standard German)

But I disagree with you, because I'm looking for the best sentence you could pin at a door. Your variant isn't wrong, it's correct, but it's how one would say it, not read it on a sign.

 

Whodunit...

Wie du schon gesehn hast, meine Muttersprache ist nicht die Deutsche, deshalb mache ich zur Zeit noch kleine und grosser Fehler.
Aber! Der Satz, den ich gemacht habe... hat kein "Sie" oder "sie" fehler, es kommt darauf an wie Ich das sagen möchte.

Auf jeden Fall, vielen Dank für deine Hilfe, und Ich hoffe, dass du mich öfters korrigierst. Herzlichen Dank.

Marcus

 

Bitte schön. Ich korigiere dich gern. Dein deutsch ist aber sehr gut. Ich habe es nur sehr intensiv korrigiert, daher sieht es so aus, als gäbe es viele Fehler, aber es sind wirklich nur kleine und keine schwerwiegende.

The difference between "sie" and "Sie" is like in English "they" and "you" and in Spanish "ellos" and "ustedes". You would never say: "Could they close the door, please?", but "Could you close the door please?".

 

Palun sulgege uks.
Please close the door - palun is generally used as 'please', but it also means "I beg" or "I ask" or "I request" (you to close the door).

Palume uks sulgeda.
Please close the door - we request/ask that the door be closed.

All the best,
maver

 

Would you prefer the first variant for an official sign?

 

Bonjour Whodunit,
En français et plus aimable/poli (plus formel aussi, ce que l'on voit dans les lieux publics) que ce qui a déjà été donné :

"Merci de fermer la porte"

 

Merci beaucoup, mais as-tu déjà vu cela sur des enseignes?

 

Oui, Whodunit, c'est ce que l'on voit le plus souvent !! Sur les portes des toilettes dans les magasins, dans tous les lieux publics... c'est "l'expression consacrée", en fait.
On peut dire aussi (mais c'est plus long) : "merci de maintenir la porte fermée"

 

Pourrait-on dire "Prière de fermer la porte"???

 

Hi Whodonit!
You can use this in russian:
УБЕДИТЕЛЬНАЯ ПРОСЬБА ЗАКРЫВАТЬ ДВЕРИ
Actually I haven t seen any sign in russian since about 10 years, but I think this one sounds very convincing. If you skip the first word (intensificater of the word "request", which is the second word) it is ok as well . It is written in impersonal form.
If you want it in form of order (well, direct request), it will be:
ПОЖАЛУЙСТА, ЗАКРЫВАЙТЕ ДВЕРИ! (the first word means "please")
Both forms are allright, I would slightly prefer the impersonal one for the sigh

 

Thank you. Do you know the same in Azerbaijani?

 

well, for mandarin(simplified chinese)
"please close the door" is
请 关 门
qing guan men

 

Raja'an aghliq al-bab
رجاء أغلق الباب

 

Thank you very much. Are there spaces between the idiogrammes?

 

What do you say about this?

Ayed, your version is understandable for me, but I would translate Elroy's as follows:

The request is closing the door.

And Ayed's one:

Please close the door.

 

My version is VERY difficult to translate literally, but I'll try:

الرجاء = the request; the plea
إغلاق= (the) closing
[genitive "of" implied]
الباب = the door

الرجاء is used idiomatically to mean "please."
إغلاق الباب would correspond to the German "die Tür schließen" - not literally, of course, since the infinitive as such does not exist in Arabic, but in the sense of impersonality.

For this reason, I would prefer my version for a sign. Ayed's version means "Please close the door [said to a singular male]," whereas my version means "Bitte die Tür schließen" - impersonal and general.

Another version would be يرجى إغلاق الباب, which literally means "The closing of the door is requested." يرجى corresponds to Spanish "Se ruega," which is found very frequently on signs.

I hope it's clear now.

 

Hi Whodunit! My azeri is poor and quite out of use for about 15 yers already,
but I will try to find out.

 

In Romanian:

Va rugam inchideti usa!

Hope it helps.

Marcos