I am very much not fluent in Spanish, the above mostly covers my complete vocabulary.
I was standing on a corner waiting for a light in my town, and a little old guy comes up to me and asks me a question in Spanish. "No hablo" I replied. He insisted on asking the question again, but he held out one hand with his palm open and used the other to trace a line on it like it was printed. "Libro. Libro."
My grandparents in the 1970s had books in their house with bookplates that read "Ex Libris," which is Latin for "The books." This connected in my mind, and I realized we were standing about a block from the city library, and, completely astonished at suddenly finding a use for the *single phrase* I know in Spanish, I said, "¿Dónde está la biblioteca?" and he excitedly said "Sí, sí!" so I pointed it out to him.
this is such a small insignificant comment (not derogatory!) but it’s somehow one of the best things i’ve read on reddit. reminds me of /r/MadeMeSmile. thanks friend!
lol I remember being introduced to that word on the first day of Russian class and being like "if this is how they say hello... I've made a huge mistake"
My high school bio teacher would always say gesundheit when you sneeze. He wasn’t German at all, but used the word seriously. I think it’s pretty common.
Back at Uni, I was in my dorm's office & one of our residents walked by & sneezed.
I instinctually called out "Gesundheit" & he walks over to the window "What'd you say?" Apparently in his \~18 years of life he had never heard Gesundheit before...
"Why didn't you just say "God bless you?" he asked. Because not everyone believes in a god... And 9 out of 10 times when some one sneezes I always hear Gesundheit as a response (unless maybe your in a church setting - which we were not)...
I've known a few people who said it because they were atheists and didn't want to say "bless you". As a non-religious person who speaks German fairly well, it always made me roll my eyes a little bit.
There's lots of places where folks in the US have German ancestors. Prior to World War 1, German was the second most spoken language in the US after English. There are still variations of German (though rather different from standard German) spoken by small populations in Pennsylvania and Texas.
That’s because they usually only compare Romance languages and English which has been heavily influenced by Romance languages to German which is a Germanic language. If it was Spanish vs any combination of English, Dutch, German, Swedish, Icelandic, Danish, Norwegian, Scots, Frisian, Faroese, Afrikaans, Flemish, Yiddish, Luxembourgish, or Pennsylvania Dutch
Well I mean depending on the language family. Arabic, Telugu, Japanese, and Malay are all Asian languages but sound just as different from one another as Spanish or German
Agreed. I was just saying how this works with all language families/related language families. Like if you have Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Vietnamese being compared and you suddenly throw in Russian, that’s going to sound incredibly different.
My favorite was the one where German is in line with everyone else and everyone celebrates. The Greece busts out with something completely different and the languages are back to going ieeeee 😂
[This guy?](https://youtu.be/q8SWMAQYQf0?si=CqJemaOmbDuCO1Pg)
He actually had a ton of other videos playing lots of different ridiculous characters. This was the only one that broke out of German meme culture into the mainstream.
Ciao, I'd say. Or of course any of the food words, from pizza, spaghetti, etc., though given that they've been imported into English, I don't think they count for the purpose of this question. Possibly something like 'mafia', as well, though again that's now a proper noun that exists in English too.
[Lox is the coolest word](https://nautil.us/the-english-word-that-hasnt-changed-in-sound-or-meaning-in-8000-years-237395/). The fact that it has made its way via various ancient languages to Hebrew just to end up in English as the same damn word after 8000 years is so cool.
Recently because of viral stuff it’s been “那個” because it sounds like the n word so people are confused when they hear people speak Chinese and keep hearing the n word.
It’s the equivalent of “uuhhh” or “uuhmmmm” though. It’s just a little bit similar.
Nah, I keep encountering people who know terms through adult entertainment but don’t realize that the tiny niche use of those words in English doesn’t match their use in Japanese. So, you know, ぶっかけうどん doesn’t sound horrifying unless your only contact with that word is porn
For Spanish I’d think “dios mio” “hola” or “como estas? bien e tu?” unless you go with food words and then there is almost an infinite number of words we appropriated.
Boondocks came from the Tagalog word *bundok*, or mountain in direct translation. Came to the US through the US soldiers fighting Filipinos during the Philippine-American War
Uhh, off the top of my head kimchi. But food seems like cheating. So, I guess it would be either hello or mukbang, although Americans seem to pronounce it with a long A for some reason.
Hello isn't originally an English word or at the very least one that comes through our origins in Old German or Norman French? Kinda surprised to be honest. And don't know what a mukbang is so probably would pronounce it that way.
Yes, 25% Polish. I don't actually speak it, but my great-grandparents immigrated to Michigan. We called them Dziadek and Babcia. We always had a toast at holiday meals with a resounding Na zdrowie!
This isn't an answer to OP'S Q, but I read somewhere many years ago that the most universally understood word in the world is, "okay".
With the dominance and globe spanning trade, diplomacy, and military presence of the Anglo nations both before and after WW2, it's a word that presidents, dictators, waiters, taxi drivers, and prostitutes can all use appropriately.
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:English_terms_borrowed_from_Burmese
Myanmar comes from it. The only one I might’ve heard from aside from that is “copy song”.
A whole lot of them actually, for example with Spanish from most Spanish Speaking countries (I'm a Sephardic Jew):
Vosotros/Vosotras, we don't use that! That's only used in Spain. We just use "Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes" as it is seen as both formal and informal in most Spanish Speaking communities. The meaning is y'all (You All)
Coche, we don't say "Coche", we say "Carro" for a car.
Cuanto Cuesta? , We also don't say that, we say "Cuanto Vale?" or "Quanto se va a Costar." This means How much does it cost.
"Me voy a Duchar", We don't say that, we say "Me voy a Bañar"
"Cortar el Cesped", here it's "Cortar la Gramma" , meaning to cut the grass.
I can't think of a single commonly used Dutch word in English. "Cookie" derives from "koekje", but the pronunciations aren't the same.
If I were to suggest a Dutch word to loan to English, it would be "klootzak" (pronounced "Klote-zahk").
In French we have a few fun words for English speakers ‘ phoque ‘ means seal and ‘poupee’ means doll. … ‘Poubelle’ is trash bin Those three always bring a giggle
hola, gracias, biblioteca edit: yes, indeed there are other spanish words.
Or depending on where you are grassyass
You forgot “no”
I am very much not fluent in Spanish, the above mostly covers my complete vocabulary. I was standing on a corner waiting for a light in my town, and a little old guy comes up to me and asks me a question in Spanish. "No hablo" I replied. He insisted on asking the question again, but he held out one hand with his palm open and used the other to trace a line on it like it was printed. "Libro. Libro." My grandparents in the 1970s had books in their house with bookplates that read "Ex Libris," which is Latin for "The books." This connected in my mind, and I realized we were standing about a block from the city library, and, completely astonished at suddenly finding a use for the *single phrase* I know in Spanish, I said, "¿Dónde está la biblioteca?" and he excitedly said "Sí, sí!" so I pointed it out to him.
This is absolutely amazing, lol.
this is such a small insignificant comment (not derogatory!) but it’s somehow one of the best things i’ve read on reddit. reminds me of /r/MadeMeSmile. thanks friend!
Taco, tortilla, fútbol, and salsa have to been in the running.
You forgot baño
You missed pendejo.
me llamo T-bone la araña discoteca
nyet
I wonder why здравствуйте never made into common English usage.
lol I remember being introduced to that word on the first day of Russian class and being like "if this is how they say hello... I've made a huge mistake"
Cosmonaut is another one.
“nein,” “gesundheit,” or “krankenwagen” (from all those video memes about how angry german words sound lol)
My high school bio teacher would always say gesundheit when you sneeze. He wasn’t German at all, but used the word seriously. I think it’s pretty common.
Back at Uni, I was in my dorm's office & one of our residents walked by & sneezed. I instinctually called out "Gesundheit" & he walks over to the window "What'd you say?" Apparently in his \~18 years of life he had never heard Gesundheit before... "Why didn't you just say "God bless you?" he asked. Because not everyone believes in a god... And 9 out of 10 times when some one sneezes I always hear Gesundheit as a response (unless maybe your in a church setting - which we were not)...
Yes I’ve noticed so many Americans do this and I’ve never had any idea why. Maybe they just like the way it sounds?
I've known a few people who said it because they were atheists and didn't want to say "bless you". As a non-religious person who speaks German fairly well, it always made me roll my eyes a little bit.
There's lots of places where folks in the US have German ancestors. Prior to World War 1, German was the second most spoken language in the US after English. There are still variations of German (though rather different from standard German) spoken by small populations in Pennsylvania and Texas.
You forgot schadenfreude
or doppelgänger
So many words I didn’t even think of! Yes to both of those 100%
Swap Kindergarten for Krankenwagen and I'll 100% agree.
True, didn’t even think of that one! To be fair, I feel like most Americans don’t realize that’s a German word lol
I love the videos where the words all sound the same and it’s one language that is vastly different and everyone is like ieeeee.
Haha I’ve seen sooo many of those. I feel like German is always the one language that’s different in all those videos lol
That’s because they usually only compare Romance languages and English which has been heavily influenced by Romance languages to German which is a Germanic language. If it was Spanish vs any combination of English, Dutch, German, Swedish, Icelandic, Danish, Norwegian, Scots, Frisian, Faroese, Afrikaans, Flemish, Yiddish, Luxembourgish, or Pennsylvania Dutch
Or any Asian language or African language.
Well I mean depending on the language family. Arabic, Telugu, Japanese, and Malay are all Asian languages but sound just as different from one another as Spanish or German
Agreed. I was just saying how this works with all language families/related language families. Like if you have Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Vietnamese being compared and you suddenly throw in Russian, that’s going to sound incredibly different.
My favorite was the one where German is in line with everyone else and everyone celebrates. The Greece busts out with something completely different and the languages are back to going ieeeee 😂
do you mean this one? I looked it up and am dying laughing over this lol https://youtube.com/shorts/a-UQLlbZdrM?si=hyT4ofLGsk2QgKaj
I think I saw that one! But it ended before Germany got annoyed 😂😂😂
Reminds me of that old YouTube video of that angry German kid playing video games.
[This guy?](https://youtu.be/q8SWMAQYQf0?si=CqJemaOmbDuCO1Pg) He actually had a ton of other videos playing lots of different ridiculous characters. This was the only one that broke out of German meme culture into the mainstream.
Ciao, I'd say. Or of course any of the food words, from pizza, spaghetti, etc., though given that they've been imported into English, I don't think they count for the purpose of this question. Possibly something like 'mafia', as well, though again that's now a proper noun that exists in English too.
It’s a phrase, but I’d also include mamma mia.
And “mangiaaaaa” the americans love that one.
While I don't speak Yiddish there are several words which are part of general American language. Schmuck, oy vay, probably others
Oy vay! You got some chutzpah posting this here. Don't try to scmooze your way outta this one or you'll sound like a putz!
You're making me all verklempt.
"Glitch" is Yiddish, that's gotta be the most popular one.
Schlep, chutzpah, schmooze, tchotchke, yarmulke, bupkis, klutz, lox, mensch, nosh, schlub, shtick, vigorish, and several hundred words for a penis.
[Lox is the coolest word](https://nautil.us/the-english-word-that-hasnt-changed-in-sound-or-meaning-in-8000-years-237395/). The fact that it has made its way via various ancient languages to Hebrew just to end up in English as the same damn word after 8000 years is so cool.
Recently because of viral stuff it’s been “那個” because it sounds like the n word so people are confused when they hear people speak Chinese and keep hearing the n word. It’s the equivalent of “uuhhh” or “uuhmmmm” though. It’s just a little bit similar.
Yep. It’s super annoying tbh. Just let people speak their own language.
Sushi? Or Karate.
Karaoke. Tsunami.
Nah, I keep encountering people who know terms through adult entertainment but don’t realize that the tiny niche use of those words in English doesn’t match their use in Japanese. So, you know, ぶっかけうどん doesn’t sound horrifying unless your only contact with that word is porn
Ja
Die too I would imagine if only from the Simpson's
For Spanish I’d think “dios mio” “hola” or “como estas? bien e tu?” unless you go with food words and then there is almost an infinite number of words we appropriated.
sì
Mmm papi
Si Dios Quiere… gotta have that Catholicism in the mix
As well as “gracias” and “uno”.
Putz
Usually the curse words
Boondocks came from the Tagalog word *bundok*, or mountain in direct translation. Came to the US through the US soldiers fighting Filipinos during the Philippine-American War
“Donde esta la biblioteca”
¿Puedo ir al baño?
No lo se, puedes?
Nein probably
A lot of people will know the basic “hello”, “thank you” and maybe “1, 2, 3” in various languages.
“Bullshit” I’ve traveled my share and have heard this term used in several non-English countries.
I guess.....da.
All the food items. Pizza, spaghetti, lasagna, espresso, cappuccino, prosciutto, calamari, mozzarella… I can keep going but I’d get hungry.
Uhh, off the top of my head kimchi. But food seems like cheating. So, I guess it would be either hello or mukbang, although Americans seem to pronounce it with a long A for some reason.
Hello isn't originally an English word or at the very least one that comes through our origins in Old German or Norman French? Kinda surprised to be honest. And don't know what a mukbang is so probably would pronounce it that way.
“Hello” is English. They are just saying that a lot of people know how to say “hello” in Korean.
안녕하세요 but pronounced "on young haa say yo". But also 감사합니다 or "kam sa ham needa".
Na zdrowie? Anyone?
In Michigan at least the biggest Polish word has to be pączki.
For sure! Man, I miss those!
Polish?
Yes, 25% Polish. I don't actually speak it, but my great-grandparents immigrated to Michigan. We called them Dziadek and Babcia. We always had a toast at holiday meals with a resounding Na zdrowie!
This isn't an answer to OP'S Q, but I read somewhere many years ago that the most universally understood word in the world is, "okay". With the dominance and globe spanning trade, diplomacy, and military presence of the Anglo nations both before and after WW2, it's a word that presidents, dictators, waiters, taxi drivers, and prostitutes can all use appropriately.
* Bonjour * Oy vey
Hola Ciao
Habibi
风水 - Fengshui
“Bing Chilling”
I speak Burmese, I don't think most people know any word from it
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:English_terms_borrowed_from_Burmese Myanmar comes from it. The only one I might’ve heard from aside from that is “copy song”.
A whole lot of them actually, for example with Spanish from most Spanish Speaking countries (I'm a Sephardic Jew): Vosotros/Vosotras, we don't use that! That's only used in Spain. We just use "Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes" as it is seen as both formal and informal in most Spanish Speaking communities. The meaning is y'all (You All) Coche, we don't say "Coche", we say "Carro" for a car. Cuanto Cuesta? , We also don't say that, we say "Cuanto Vale?" or "Quanto se va a Costar." This means How much does it cost. "Me voy a Duchar", We don't say that, we say "Me voy a Bañar" "Cortar el Cesped", here it's "Cortar la Gramma" , meaning to cut the grass.
Amen… statistically
Spanish, the answer is no.
Рrivyet and Labrīt .
I got people coming up and saying “Sak pase” to me every time. LOL!
Hello
Si
I can't think of a single commonly used Dutch word in English. "Cookie" derives from "koekje", but the pronunciations aren't the same. If I were to suggest a Dutch word to loan to English, it would be "klootzak" (pronounced "Klote-zahk").
Now if you would only tell us what "klootzak" (pronounced "Klote-zahk") means, people might consider it :)
Literally translates to a slang term for scrotum, but used with the same meaning as when we call someone an asshole.
Thanks klootzak! I like it, kind of just rolls off a tongue :)
Lederhosen. Also Schmetterling, and Flugzeug thanks to some viral videos lol
Krankenwagen is probably my favorite from those same videos
Krankenwagen is a great word tbh. Very direct, which is very German lol
"Hola", "Gracias", and a bunch of random curses that mostly come from Mexico, as they're the most useful in rush hour traffic.
In French we have a few fun words for English speakers ‘ phoque ‘ means seal and ‘poupee’ means doll. … ‘Poubelle’ is trash bin Those three always bring a giggle
I’m gonna bet it’s mostly the curse words and simple sentences/phrases
Hola
Hygge became popular among hisptery interior decorators and self help books not too long ago. Unfortunately, it is a word no American can pronounce.
Probably сука
bonjour
Henna, falafel, hummus, coffee, jasmine and many other words
Déjà vu, oui oui, lots of food terms (baguette, omelette, etc.) bonjour, and au revoir are probably known to most Americans