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Useful phrases in other languages
Keywords: Culture & History
For Go players who anticipate meeting other players who don't share a language, it can be useful to know how to ask for a game. Here are the most idiomatic (by consensus of SL patrons) phrases in various languages for:
Please help fill in the blanks and correct errors (or discuss below).
English: Asking: "Would you like a game?"
Chinese (Mandarin): Asking: "下棋吗?" ("xia4 qi2 ma1?") ("Want to play chess?")
(See Pinyin for how to read the romanised pronunciation of Chinese Mandarin words.[1])
Chinese (Cantonese): Asking: "捉唔捉圍棋呀?" ("play Go or not?") (jok1 ng4 jok1 wai4 kei5 ah3?)
Note: This is Cantonse intonation, and not hanyu pinyin.
Chinese (Taiwanese/Hokkien): Asking: "li4 gam1 bei3 sun2 wee2 gee2" ("literal translation: Are you ok with playing Go?")
Note: This is in hanyu pinyin (although it shouldn't really work for this dialect)(gimpf: As far as I know pinyin works quite well, it's only a taiwanese preference to use Wade-Giles.) (Note: Most Taiwanese understand Mandarin Chinese anyway, so you'll probably only need to use this when faced among older-generation Taiwanese or the less educated)
Japanese: Asking: "<surname>-san, uchimasen ka?" ("Mr/Mrs <surname>, would you like to play?")
Korean: Asking: "Badouk hal-kka-yo?" ("Shall we play badouk?")
Vietnamese: Asking: "" ("")
Russian : Asking: "" ("Davaite sigraem")
Polish: Asking: "Zagramy?" ("Shall we play?")
French: Asking: "Une partie?" ("A game?")
German: Asking: "Hast du Lust eine Partie zu spielen?" ("Would you like to play a game?") or
"Möchten Sie Go spielen?" (Would you like to play Go?) - More formal/respectful, yet shorter.
Dutch: Asking: "Wil je een partij(tje) spelen?" ("Would you like to play a game?")
Finnish: Asking: "Pelataanko?" ("Shall we play?")
Galician: Asking: "¿Xogamos unha partida?" ("Shall we play a game?")
Italian: Asking: "Facciamo una partita?" ("Shall we play a game?")
Portuguese: Asking: "Vamos jogar uma partida?" ("Shall play a game?")
Spanish: Asking: "¿Jugamos?" ("Shall we play?") or "¿Quiere jugar?" ("Do you want to play?")
Czech: Asking: "Zahrajeme si?" ("")
Hungarian: Asking: "Van kedved játszani?" ("Would you like to play a game?")
Catalan: Asking: "Vols jugar una partida?" ("Do you want to play a game?")
Ukrainian: Asking: "Zihraiem?" ("Shall we play?"); "Zbatsaiem?" ("A fight?", informal)
[1]: (Note: "qi2" means chess in Mandarin Chinese, and normally refers to Chinese Chess (being the more popular game), and not Go. To be more specific (perhaps when faced with a person with both a Chinese chess board AND a Go board?) without pointing or anything, use the term "wei2 qi2" instead of just "qi2" Example: "xia4 wei2 qi2 ma1" is also acceptable, and in response, "yes" could also be "ke2 yi3", "shi4de", "dui4 le", "yao4", "wo3 yao4") TDerz Correction: The final particle "de" for expressing the affirmation does not carry the 4th tone. It is toneless - how should I describe it? - none of the second, third or fourth => the tone pitch is not modulated and it is not as high as the first tone. Hence, it is pronounced "shi4de", Same with "dui4le" (which would answer a question with "correct"). I could imagine someone answering happy or in sighing "Na4 hao3 ba!" (s.th. like "OK then, let's go for it!"). The above 'x' in xia is a palatal voiceless fricative, which is produced by raising the front of the tongue near (but not touching) the hard palate and letting the air squeeze out. The vocal cord does not vibrate {from Elementary Chinese Readers, Vol. 1}. Example: 'x' as the English sh in "banshee". The "q" in WeiQi is a palatal aspirated voiceless affricate. The position and manner of articulation are the same as those of "j", with the only difference, that it is aspirated. Do these explanations really help without the explaining diagrams, where and how the tongue should be located between teeth and palate? Example: 'q' as the English ch in cheese. The ei in WeiQi is pronounced as eigh in English sleigh. The i in WeiQi is pronounced as ee in English (see, bee, me). (But the i would be silent after c, ch, r, s, sh, sh, z, and zh.) Question: Is it possible to have voice or sound recording & reproducing on Senseis? { Are we allowed to edit by also deleting entries of other contributors? => Barthoze: the former explanations were confusing because 'Tsch' is "ch" in pinyin Tderz You are right. I erased my confusing text. Next time I have a look at the text book before I write how other native speakers should pronounce Chinese. } "Would you like to play (Go)?" "Ni3 qiang3 xia4 (wei2qi2) ma2?" The first word ni3 ("you") can be exchanged against a more respectful nin2 ("you"), i.e. vs. a professional (who might reply in his/her best English: "Never mind, You can say you to me!"). "(Ni3/Nin2) Rang4 wo3 ji(3)zi?" (Give me how many stones? = How much handicap?) "bai(3)" = white; "hei(1)" = black unkx80: The above looks okay, but there really is too many possible phrases (not just in Chinese, but in any language), should we really list more? For the tone not described by any of the first to fourth tones, there is no number to it, simply "de". However, sometimes "de5" is seen. To be strict, "yin1 yang2 shang3 qu4" is not the actual notation, rather the actual notation is "yīn yáng shǎng qù", but it takes a lot of effort to enter these symbols into the computer! Scartol: Can someone provide translations into the three Asian languages (Japanese, Chinese, Korean) the phrase "Do you want to play"? It would be nice to be able to communicate on IGS without expecting others to speak English. (Maybe other languages too? In French, it's "Voulez-vous jouer?") or ("Voudriez-vous jouer?") MrKoala: "Une partie ?" would also do it in French. (Lit. means "A game ?") The phrase is not as informal as it may seem, and will do in 97.3 percent of the cases. (I hate nine-ish numbers like 90% and 99% ;-) ) However, one thing to note is that the person will rarely accept with a "oui" ("yes") but more often with something like "Pourquoi pas ?" ("Why not ?") or "pkwa pa" ("y not" :) ). At the end of the game, you might want to thank your opponent for playing with you with a respectful "Merci pour la partie." ("Thank you for the game") or a "Merci à vous" ("Thank YOU") if he was quicker than you :). Bill: In Japanese, "--- san, yarimasen ka?" will do nicely. :-) (Omitting the name is a bit abrupt.) Nando: A japanese friend of mine told me to be careful with this, since this sentence is context-dependant. Before saying that, just make sure you're connected to some online Go server, or standing in front of a Goban. Or else, it could lead to misunderstandings, since it more or less translates to "would you like to 'do' it". As a more explicit alternative, he proposed something like "--- san, uchimasenka?".
Bill: Hehe. That's true. But the question concerned asking on a go server (IGS).
Nando: Aha, I see :-) (my friend didn't tell me about this one) splice: Small note: In japanese, it is called "igo", not just Go. So, "igo o yarimasen ka" or "igo o uchimasen ka" should be correct. Bill: Smaller note: When I was living in Japan, if I said, "igo", to non-go players, they did not understand. It's like referring to chess as "Caissa" in the U. S. When I explained what I meant, they would say, "A! O-go desu ka?" ;-) splice: Minuscule note: That's very weird. My japanese teacher (native) didn't know what go was until I explained what the game looked like, etc, then she went "Ahh, igo! Sou desu ne.". I guess it might be a regional thing? No idea. Heck, get japanese input working and use the kanji, there won't be any confusion there :) Bob Myers: Bill, you must have been forgetting to make the little motion with your hand where you pretend you're playing a stone on an invisible board while saying the word "igo". That almost always does the trick. Richard Hunter: If I go into a Japanese bookshop and ask in Japanese where the igo books are, they assume I meant eigo (English). If I answer the English question: What is your hobby? with "playing go", people always assume I said golf. Dieter: "Wil je een partij(tje) spelen ?" or "Zin in een spelletje ?" is Dutch.
Scartol: These were taken from Alta Vista's Babel Fish (
Spanish: Usted desea jugar?
Italian: Desiderate giocare?
Portuguese: Você quer jogar? Dieter: Most translation services on the net actually focus on Brasilian Portuguese, which can be said to differ from Portuguese as much as US English does from UK English. Jogamos? or Um jogo ? will do or , more formally, O senhor (A senhora) quer jogar ?.
Finnish: "Pelataanko?" Translates to "Shall we play?" (Yes, your perception is correct: politeness is not a part of the language. Mentioning names is also considered strange.) After the game you might want to say "Kiitos", or "Kiitos pelistä", which mean "Thank you" or "Thank you for the game", respectively. German: "Hast du Lust eine Partie zu spielen?" (informal), "Möchten Sie (mit mir) eine Partie spielen?" (formal) Jesusin: In Spanish simply "¿Jugamos?" (informal) will be ok. The go community is quite friendly so IMHO more formality is not needed. Illich: "Zahrajeme si?" or "Chcete hrát?" in Czech ;) Chinese (Mandarin) unkx80: Quite a number of ways to express them, I only gave a short version. I expect the Cantonese version to be similar when written. Karl Knechtel: Thanks to whoever contributed the Cantonese. Could we possibly get the tones for it too? I understand there are 9 tones in Cantonese to the 4 (5?) of Mandarin... The tones for the Cantonese version is given above. Enjoy. :) Anonymous: (a semiserious request) How about Esperanto and Klingon?
This is a copy of the living page "Useful phrases in other languages" at Sensei's Library. ![]() |