The word for “Thank you” in European languages [due to u/Virble]

27 comments
  1. They actually got it right for once. If I’d only seen the title I would’ve assume that had written “tack du” or something.

  2. The Greek one is same root as “Eucharist”. Fun fact they could have included, since they mention similar fun facts for some of the others.

  3. Dutch has a couple variations.

    Dank u, which is formal in the Netherlands, but used informally in Belgium (and is more commonly used than dank je).

    Dankjewel or dankuwel, which translates to ‘thank you very much’, but it is equivalent to dank je / dank u in Dutch.

  4. The Albanian word Faleminderit it’s not from to pray, this is straight up Google translate. It’s to give from the root “fal” that means “to give for free” that is used as forgive too. Usually is also used “Të faleminderit” to give someone your appreciation for something. Falem is used only by Muslim when they pray, and Christians use Lutem for pray.

  5. ‘Thanks’ is probably a lot more common in English than the full ‘Thank you.’ Even in written contexts you’re quite likely to use ‘thanks’.

  6. One could believe that it at least would universally be a rather short word, but…

    *Somewhere in Ireland:* “go raibh maith agat”

  7. Related languages aside, Finnish “jumalauta”, a contraction of god “jumala” and plea for help “auta”, is a swear or curse. Nothing like the Estonian of same meaning. 😉

  8. A Polish person would seem extremely polite in the Scandinavian countries (‘tak’ stands for ‘yes’ in Poland).

  9. Must have gotten the people who did the historical research for Braveheart to do Scotland. Never heard the suggestion once in my entire life; it’s like a non-Scot trying to sound Scottish.

    Interestingly though “ta” is used informally throughout Scotland (probably elsewhere in the UK too).

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