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"Well, um..." in different languages

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22 messages over 3 pages: 1 2
Emily96
Diglot
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Canada
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Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Spanish, Finnish, Latin

 
 Message 17 of 22
19 July 2013 at 6:35am | IP Logged 
"alors" means "so" in french, and can be used just like in English:
alors... que veux-tu faire aujourd'hui? so... what do you want to do today?

you could also use "bien" (literally, "well") but it comes out more like "ben"
ben... non, je ne veux pas aller à la plage well... no, i don't want to go to the beach
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Michel1020
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Belgium
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 Message 18 of 22
19 July 2013 at 10:26am | IP Logged 
Stephen7878 wrote:


So you think saying "well what do you think" is a mistake? or impolite? I think that those words are pretty
universal in how they are employed, and where there are differences, speaking with natives will fix that
problem. I just cannot comprehend the argument you are trying to make.


I did say "a bit" and "now and then".
I think native speakers can tell better than me if "well what do you think" is impolite or not. My first opinion would be it is not. My second opinion is "Well what do you think" to be a little bit more agressive than "what do you think". This difference shows "well" is not unusefull but often this kind of words don't bring anything to the conversation and people who use them have a tendency to put a lot of them which turns to be quite annoying for the listener.

It is not because many, if not all including myself do something wrong that you have to learn to do the same.

Fillers are often very imprecise and we have a tendency to hear the meaning we wanted to hear. Beside I would trust more a person is following what I am telling her if she answers with actual words or actions than if she replies with fillers which could come out of her mouth automatically.

If the only logical answer to "..." is "... you do or ... you don't" why don't simply say "I do" or "I don't" ?

As for buying thinking time you only need to do that with sounds on the phone in a face to face conversation body language should be enough to show the other part you are thinking about your next words. And better than buying time with sounds do it with words.

I will try to step into - just for the laugh from the sentence replacing "beurk". They say if you don't do it on purpose with the right foot - it will make money coming in soon. The right foot being the left one.

If you still want to use fillers you are better acquiring them in context than getting lists and translations.
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Josquin
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Germany
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 Message 19 of 22
19 July 2013 at 11:48am | IP Logged 
In German, you simply say "ähm", "äh", "öh", or "also".
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hrhenry
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United States
languagehopper.blogs
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 Message 20 of 22
19 July 2013 at 6:27pm | IP Logged 
Michel1020 wrote:
I think native speakers can tell better than me if "well what do you
think" is impolite or not. My first opinion would be it is not. My second opinion is
"Well what do you think" to be a little bit more agressive than "what do you think".

If you're looking for someone's opinion on something you're talking about or looking for
agreement on doing simething, for example, in Italian it's usually "Che ne dici?" or
"Che ne pensi?", which isn't rude or aggressive at all.

R.
==
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vogue
Triglot
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United States
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 Message 21 of 22
22 July 2013 at 12:26pm | IP Logged 
Beh is also a good word in Italian that means 'well.' insomma meaning 'whatever' or 'so yeah....' is also used
often enough. And boh which means 'I don't know.' it's a filler phrase.

"perchè non viene con noi."
"boh. Penso chè sia stanco.."
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overscore
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CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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Speaks: French*, English, German

 
 Message 22 of 22
26 July 2013 at 3:40am | IP Logged 
Quebec French as said earlier is "ben", exact same pronunciation as "bain" (bath). Perhaps in a diphthong, as is
customary for QF. This filler is overused in Quebec, lol.

In France, the nasal vowels are mangled beyond relief and you get something like "banc". (seat)

German, either "naja, .." or "tja, .."

Japanese, I'd say: "ano....". anyone?


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