How-To Say Thank You in 14 Different Languages
Whenever Bob and I travel to a non-English speaking city, we try to interact with locals using their own language (even if we butcher it sometimes). The effort seems to go a long way in showing respect and befriending a stranger. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve ekk’ed out merci or gracias and been given a helpful smile (or directions and advice) from a local. Committing to a basic understanding of a foreign language is a great, FREE, travel tool to have up your sleeve.
How-To Say Thank You in 14 Different Languages:
English- Thank you, Thanks
Spanish- Gracias
French- Merci (Thank you very much= Merci Beaucoup)
Italian- Grazie
Japanese- (Domo) Arigato (ah-ree-gah’-toh) or written ありがとう
Chinese- do jeh, daw-dyeh
German- Danke sehr
Thai- Khop Khun Mak Kha
Russian- Spasiba (spah-see’-boh)
Korean- written 감사합니다 gamsahabnida
Icelandic- Takk
Hawaiian- Mahalo
Hebrew- Toda (toh-dah’)
Greek- Efharisto (ef-har-ris-tou’)
Is there a special way to say thank you where you are from? When we were in Australia, everyone would say No Worries or Easy As whenever we would thank them. In my hometown of St. Augustine, you are likely to hear a few, Thanks, y’all, coming from the locals. Have any favorites that should be added to the list? Let us know in the comments below!
(*image via WoodleyWonderworks)
Thanks for the list! It really does make a positive difference when traveling to make an attempt at the language. And learning a phrase like “thank you” is so simple. I never heard of the Australian “Easy As” response to thanks — cool.
“Hvala” (Serbo-Croatian) has become one of my favorites lately, mostly because I had to use it a ton this past summer…
Great post! I love language-related insights
Glad to see Korean here! Hello, Thank you, Excuse me in local language is important, in my opinion too.
I know Domo Arigato from Mr. Roboto! Never thought about how that could come in handy.
The Chinese you gave was Cantonese. In Mandarin Chinese, thank you is “xie xie.”
Also, Portuguese: Obrigado
While I’m at it, here are a bunch of other thank you’s:
http://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/thankyou.htm
In Hindi, it is Dhanyawaad.
Thanks for this list!
The Thai version you wrote says “thank you very much” (spoken by a female).
Mak = very
Khop Khun Kha = Thank you (spoken by a female)
Khop Khun Khap = Thank you (spoken by a male)
I can add a couple. I was in Bali about a month ago and I learnt ‘terimakassi’. It always made the locals smile when I used it, and they seemed to appreciate the effort. And in Swiss-German, they say Merci, as in French, but with the stress on the first part of the word.
In Polish it will be “dziękuję”