New phrases page

There’s a new phrases page on Omniglot – Please say that again – how to ask people to repeat something that you didn’t understand or hear clearly. A very useful phrase when you’re learning a language. Could you let me know if you spot any mistakes or have translations into other languages?

Yesterday Owen Lee very kindly sent me a complimentary copy of his book Ultimate Language Secrets for review (感谢你!). Owen promises that the book will help “slash the time, effort and money” involved in learning languages, help you to avoid “blunders” made by most language learners, and to master any language in as little as 6 months.

Owen, who speaks Shanghainese, Mandarin, English, German, Dutch and Spanish, has tested all the suggestions in his book thoroughly and is very confident they will work for others.

I’ve just started reading it, will let you know how I get on.

9 thoughts on “New phrases page

  1. Please do let us know. You see, there are so many special language courses out there today that promise quick and easy language acquisition. I hope this one has some real stuff in it.

  2. @Simon:
    I ddn’t see Armenian on your new phrase page. Here it is:

    Հաճիս, ատիկա կրնաս/ք կրկնել:
    Hajis, adiga grnass/grnak grgnel.
    Please, that can you/pol. repeat?

    As usual, it’s Western and I make no guarantees re spelling.

    There’s an East Armenian MT site – the only one, AFAIK. But, there’s nothing for Western as far as I know.

  3. In our Latin class we say “dic iterum sivis” – “say it again please”. This is a command. “Iterum dicere potes?” – “Can you say it again” is a question. Either would work and I see that even though the English is a command, most of the other languages are questions, but “Iterum dicere potes?” lacks a “please” although it would probably be polite enough.

  4. In Swedish it’s enough to just say “Förlåt?” or “Ursäkta?”. But what you’ve written also works.

    Great site!

  5. 我知道歐文先生會說上海方言跟普通話… 所以您才會用簡體字寫”感謝你!” 不過… 我還是希望您能用正體字(即繁體字)寫出”感謝你”,畢竟中文並非只能用簡體字來書寫…

  6. 請記得,繁體字不難寫如果你用電腦。。。

    All you gotta do is click the little square and out pop the old characters 95% of the time the ones you want too…especially in two character combinations.

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