Thursday, March 20, 2008

Common phrases uttered lately

Language is exploding around here and with so many words available to Jadyn and Liana, here's the two that what we're hearing the most from them:

1. No (spoken calmly, but drawn out like a moo sound)
As in, "Do you want to go to bed?"
"No."

2. No! No! No! (Yelled with excitement for urgency)
Used most by Liana when she sees Jadyn doing something she should not be doing or something she doesn't want her to do, like close a door.

Strangely enough, these are also the same two phrases I seem to be uttering the most as well. So, I thought I'd list how to say no in a few other languages so I can at least mix it up a bit.

Apache (Arizona USA) Dah
Bosnian (Bosnia and Hercegovina) Hm
French (France, Africa, America) Non
German (Central Europe) Nein
Greek [Hellenic] (Greece, Cyprus) Ochi
Inuktitut (Alaska) Naaka
Korean (Korea) Aniyo
Mandarin [Chinese] (China) Bu shi
Nepali (Nepal) Ahaa
Romanian (Romania) Nu
Russian (Russia) Nyet
Tay (Vietnam) Boomi
Zulu (South Africa, Lesotho) Cha

If you need a little variety with the word No, check out this list for more ideas.




Thank you for visiting today.

Did you like this blog post? Please consider subscribing here:

Subscribe in a reader

4 comments:

jena strong said...

Fabulous. Are there that many ways to say yes, too?

Shannon said...

They also say no when they mean yes. What is it about this word???!!! Of course, lately it's been no hit. no hit. no hit. I feel like a broken record. sigh.

Anonymous said...

In Bulgaria, when they say no, they nod. When they say yes, they do this little head bob thing that isn't exactly liking shaking your head, but close.

Many times when I was there and someone nodded no...well, I misunderstood more than once.

Shelli said...

I love this.

Like Marta, when I was in India, they do that shaky head thing when they say yes. When we first arrived, we thought they weren't answering us. Opps.