I'm not very good with languages, I know a little English, Swedish, Danish, German and my mother tongue Norwegian. But I would like to know a little bit of some other languages too, so my thought was that we could share some common (and not so common) sentences from our own languages. I know there is a lot of translators online, but they seem to make a mess of the grammar from time to time.
Some examples of stuff to translate:
Hello Goodbye How are you Whats your name My name is My favorite movie is Do you know where the nearest video store is
Theese are just some exampls and if you have some sentences that you feel foreigners should know ad them in.
The Norwegian grammar is pretty much the same as the Englsih so the word-placement is (usually) in the same place.
English - Norwegian
Hello - God dag ("hallo" is an alternativ) Goodbye - Ha en god dag ("ha det bra" is a shorter alternativ) How are you - Hvordan står det til What's your name? - Hva heter du? My name is - Mitt navn er My favorite movie is - Min favorittfilm er Do you know where the nearest videostore is - Vet du hvor nærmeste videobutikk er Excuse me - Unnskyld meg How old are you - Hvor gammel er du Nice weather we have today - Pent vær vi har i dag This movie is awesome - Denne filmen er knallbra Excuse me, do you know where the bathroom is - Unnskyld, vet du hvor toalettet er This music is really loud, could you turn it down a little - Denne musikken er veldig høy, kan du skru ned litt Oh My God - Å herregud How did you know that - Hvordan viste du det
Some more obscure ones that you might have use for as a tourist in Norway :-)
Would you like to go home to my place and look at my stamp collection - Vil du bli med meg hjem å se på frimerke samlingen min Do all Norwegians really wear gothic makeup and burn down churches? - Bruker alle nordmenn virkelig gotisk sminke og brenner ned kirker I swear your honor, the girls told me they were over 16 years old - Jeg sverger domme, jentene fortalte meg at de var over 16 år Never mind the camera in the bathroom, it's there just for security reasons - Bry deg ikke om kameraet på baderommet, det er der på grunn av sikkerhets grunner This is my sister, she had just had a kid with a foreign guy - Dette er min søster, hun har akkurat fått barn med en utlending Hello my good man, I think your hairpiece just fell of - Hallo min gode mann, jeg tror tupeèn din akkurat falt av I wonder why these Norwegians look so darn funny - Jeg lurer på hvorfor disse nordmennene ser så rare ut This sauna is really hot, why don't you girls just take your tops of - Denne badstuen er virkelig varm, hvorfor tar ikke dere bare av dere toppene jenter No mr Policeman, I haven't touched a drop of my Jägermeister bootle - Nei hr. Politiman, jeg har virkelig ikke rørt en dråpe av Jägermeister flasken min No it's not a snake in my pants, I'm just happy to see you - Nei det er ikke en slange i buksen min, jeg er bare glad for å se deg
Great idea ZomBeeBob, why don't learn something on this site instead just having fun. I'll give you some example of Polish but I don't thik it will be very usefull, it's a hard language to learn and pronunciation is so weird that people (foreiners) are killing themselves while trying to speak :P
English-Polish Hello- Hej, Cześć (hard to say, in internet often used shot of it as "cze" Goodbye - Do widzenia (formal), Cześć, Na razie (informal) How are you - Jak się masz? Whats your name - Jak się nazywasz?, Jak masz na imię? (if you ask for surname only) My name is - Nazywam się...; Jestem... ( as "I am...") My favorite movie is - Mój ulubiony film to... Do you know where the nearest video store is - Gdzie jest najbliższy sklep video?
We should also teach each other some swearing words :D
Hello - Hallo / Guten Tag (literally: "good day") Goodbye - Tschüß / Auf Wiedersehen How are you - Wie geht es dir? What's your name? - literally: Was ist dein Name? / more common: Wie heißt du? My name is - literally: Mein Name ist... / more common: Ich heiße... My favorite movie is - Mein Lieblingsfilm ist... Do you know where the nearest videostore is - Weißt du, wo der nächste Videoladen ist? Excuse me - Entschuldigung, ... How old are you - Wie alt bist du? Nice weather we have today - Was für ein schönes Wetter wir heute haben. This movie is awesome - Dieser Film ist wirklich spitze. Excuse me, do you know where the bathroom is - Entschuldigung, weißt du, wo das Badezimmer/die Toilette ist? This music is really loud, could you turn it down a little - Die Musik ist wirklich laut, könntest du sie etwas leiser stellen? Oh My God - Oh mein Gott! How did you know that - Woher wusstest du das?
It's important to note, that there is a distinction in the way certain people are addressed in German. Here's an example: "Wie alt bist du?" and "Wie alt sind Sie?" both mean the same thing in German ("How old are you?"). The version with "bist du?" is the informal one. It is used, when you are talking to somebody you know pretty well, for example family members, friends or co-workers. On the other hand, the version with "sind Sie?" is the formal one, which you usually use when you are talking to a random stranger, or in general, people who are "above you" (especially your boss(es)!). Children are generally addressed by "du" until a certain age (~16-18). The capitalization of "Sie" is very important, because "sind sie?" ('s' not capitalized) would translate to "are they?". Both versions sound exactly the same, though.
This often leads to a lot of confusion when foreigners, who are learning German, talk to actual Germans for the first time. The first thing they'll probably be asked is "Wie heißen Sie?" (which is formal for "Wie heißt du?"/"What's your name?"), which usually is understood as "Wie heißen sie?" and therefore translated to "What are their names?". And "Wie alt sind Sie?" ("How old are you?") is most of the times understood as "Wie alt sind sie?" and translated to "How old are they?", by those, who are not aware of the differences between "Sie" and "sie".
The younger generation (and I'm speaking for myself here aswell) isn't too fond of the whole formal "Sie" thing. Nevertheless, everybody still makes that distinction in everyday life, because it's considered to be EXTREMELY impolite and disrespectful to use "du", when you should actually use the formal version. For example, I wouldn't even think of using "du", when talking to one of my professors. ^^
Even though I've had 6! years of German classes in school, I must say that it's a much harder language to learn than I thought. The main problem for me as a norwegian is the grammar.
In Norway we have the same ending in all of the forms:
jeg ER du ER han/hun/det ER vi ER de ER alle ER
While in Germany you hve (if i remember corerctly)
Ich BIN du BIST er/sie/es IST wir SIND ihr SEID Sie SIND
This makes it a lot more difficult to learn (at least for me). I also had a german exchange student in my class and she learned Norwegian in about 5 months. Hell, she even got a better degree than me in norwegian (I got a 4 (C) while she got a 5 (B) ).
hehe, i know exactly what you're talking about. i've been learning swedish (which looks very, very similar to norwegian) for about 9 months now and i can understand almost everything in written form. i think it's a lot easier "the other way around", because as a german you're already used to a very complex grammar. i can really imagine foreigners having difficulties with den/dem, dieser/diesen/diesem, wen/wem and so on. and of course, you've got the whole declination thing, for example "der hund, des hundes, dem hund, den hund". doesn't matter if you make these mistakes though, because everyone wll still be able to understand you.
and after all, even at least 30-40% of all germans (and i'm not exaggerating here) just don't get the difference between genetive and dative ("wegen dem Regen" instead of "wegen des Regens", which would be correct). SEID/SEIT is also a common mistake, but i guess you just beat a lot of germans in their own language, because you remembered correctly. :D
i'll probably try and learn dutch sometime soon. i'm from the northernmost part of germany originally, and my grandparents and father used to speak only 'plattdüütsch' at home, which is basically a special german accent, that's very similar so dutch. so i think i wouldn't have too many problems with that language. xD
Hello - hallo/hoi Goodbye - Tot ziens/doei/dag How are you - Hoe gaat het? What's your name? - hoe heet je? My name is - Ik heet... My favorite movie is - Mijn favoriete film is... Do you know where the nearest videostore is - Weet je waar de dichtsbijzijnde videotheek is? Excuse me - Sorry How old are you - Hoe oud ben je? Nice weather we have today - Lekker weer vandaag This movie is awesome - Deze film is fantastisch/geweldig Excuse me, do you know where the bathroom is - Weet je misschien waar de wc is? This music is really loud, could you turn it down a little - De muziek staat veel te hard mag het wat zachter? Oh My God - Oh mijn god! How did you know that - Hoe wist je dat?