posted
Someone shouted this out to me in English when I was in Ecuador once. "I love you! You're beautiful!" I thought if one only knew how to say one thing in a foreign language, one could pick a lot worse than this.
So Kyya and I started a list of how to say "I love you! You're beautiful!" in every language we know. Can you help us fill out the list?
Spanish: Te quiero! Eres bella/bello!
Hindi: Humse tumse pyar hai. (For I love you. Kyya's not sure about You're beautiful.)
Gujurati: tu mahne bow gamu chu! tu bow sarus lagu chu! (Kyya hopes)
German: Ich liebe dich! Du bist schoen!
I know hatrackers can lengthen this list considerably. Anyone?
posted
You know, I read this thread because I thought you had fallen in love with me, and I was sorely, sorely disapointed.
Posts: 3060 | Registered: Nov 2003
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posted
Wait a second, Evi3217. Did you miss my subtle flirtations with you? Darn; perhaps they are too subtle! I laugh on vanieties; evil, you orange ugg!
A cookie to whomever deciphers this first. ^^
Posts: 3060 | Registered: Nov 2003
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posted
I'm pretty sure that in Sindarin, "I love you" is something like "le melin" or "te mela'ne."
But unless you get lost in Valinor, that probably won't matter much. Plus they probably aren't speaking Sindarin in Valinor anyway. That'd be Quenya.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
Dutch: Ik houd van jouw (literally I am beholden of you). Jij ben mooi. Pronounciation is something like "Ick how fon yow. Y-eye bin moy." Dutch truly is the language of love.
Posts: 2926 | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
Yeah, it took a while to settle on "voce e linda"; Given I'm moving to Sao Paulo in the fall, I think it might be the most useful when it comes to charming the innocent. Oh, and diacritics are a pain.
Posts: 433 | Registered: Feb 2005
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That might be a more useful tool if it provided anglicized pronounciations as well. [/QB]
My roommate (who is Ukranian) suggests that the Russian pronunciation of what you wrote is roughly "ya lyublyu vas". Well, at least the first part. I'll have to ask again how the rest goes.
Posts: 433 | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
Klingon... My brother might still have a Klingon-English dictionary. But isn't it just throw a chair or other heavy object and scream at the person?
Posts: 1831 | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
Senoj, that Italian is wrong. Babelfish translated the Italian for you're beautiful into the you plural instead of the you singular.
Informal is Sei bello/bella. Formal is E` bello/bella.
Edit: The Klingon Language Institute does not list I love you in their phrase section. It does, however, include today is a good day to die, which might be the equivalent: Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam
Edit #2: I just found this which may be rather useful.
Posts: 2867 | Registered: May 2005
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quote:Originally posted by ClaudiaTherese: I can't wait to see this in Klingon. *grin
Somehow I doubt that phrase is said very often in Klingon.
Now if it were "I honor your prowess, your jej'taj is shiny" then you'd be somewhere.
All the online Klingon dictionaries are choking on the word "beautiful" (also "lovely," "attractive," and "striking").
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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quote:Originally posted by jlt: French formal: Je vouz adore! Vous etes belle/beau.
Actually I'm pretty sure it should be "Je vous aime, vous êtes beau."
It's purely a spelling thing, which won't matter if you're speaking it, but might as well be correct. Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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Keep all the sounds at the front of your mouth. The R' is not an american sounding R but more like a japanese R or a spanish rolled R (rr) that stops after a single roll.
There are no dipthongs so keep your vowels seperated.
Posts: 7085 | Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
In our variation of Arabic, we would say (male to female) "Ana b'hibik, ya helwi" That loosely translates to "I love you, sweet one" The word "helwi" or "sweet" also means beautiful.
In French, I would say informally (male to female again) "Je t'aime. Tu es belle."
Although I personally think "Je vous aime, ma cherie." is more effective.
Posts: 1594 | Registered: Apr 2006
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quote:Originally posted by rivka: All the online Klingon dictionaries are choking on the word "beautiful" (also "lovely," "attractive," and "striking").
*grin
You'd think "striking" would be prominent somewhere in there.
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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posted
I personally would lean toward "¡Eres bella!" instead of "¡Eres muy linda!" (And, of course, point out that the object could be masculine instead of feminine.)
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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quote:Originally posted by rivka: All the online Klingon dictionaries are choking on the word "beautiful" (also "lovely," "attractive," and "striking").
*grin
You'd think "striking" would be prominent somewhere in there.
posted
Wow. No languages to add - but I'm feeling the love. No sarcasm, even, I just love this place. : )
Posts: 1355 | Registered: Jul 2006
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posted
Phanto, I love you too. What can I say? The subtleties are just too much for my mind to handle. But then, it's hard to keep track of all the people who are in love with me.
Posts: 1789 | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
"Ik leavje dy! Do bist moai!" Which should the Frisian way of saying it, though some variations are possible, depending on how strictly you adhere to the rules of the language.
Posts: 993 | Registered: Jul 2006
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Ich liebe dich! Du bist sehr hubsch! (German, pretty instead of beautiful, but more colloquial)
Te quiero! Estas muy guapa! (Castillian Spanish - wot is spoken in Spanish Spain)
On my travels I met a fellow Brit who had translated "where is the windowsill" into fifteen languages. Not at all usefull, but I blame the beer.
Posts: 892 | Registered: Oct 2006
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Slovak (to female): Milujem ťa! Si krásna! Slovak (to male): Milujem ťa! Si krásny!
Note that I include only informal language, as I cannot imagine a person (in this century) who would at the same time 1) say something like this to a total stranger, and 2) use the formal while saying it.
edit to include both genders and to comment that there are obviously tons of ways to phrase this and I opted for the most straightforward for the sake of simplicity.
posted
What if the formal's more romantic, Lissande? Not criticizing, just thinking of a possible example...
Posts: 1355 | Registered: Jul 2006
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posted
Albanian: Të dua! Ti je i bukur. (pronounced: tuh doo-uh. Tee yeh ee bookoor.) Oh, and I'm assuming you're saying this to a man. If it's a woman, change "i bukur" to "e bukur".
Also, "I love you" in Tagalog is "mahal kita", but I forget how to say "you're beautiful."
Posts: 563 | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
I'd like to get a copy of the Book of Mormon in all 115 languages or whatever it is now. That would be such a cool rosetta stone.
Thanks for all the new ones, guys! This is so great! Please fill in both genders, for those languages in which we only have one.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
cmc - more romantic in what sense? I know different languages perceive the differences between you-informal and you-formal in different ways - are there languages in which formal language would be more romantic? This is an interesting question. Posts: 2762 | Registered: Sep 1999
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But Evie, everyone on the thread might be flirting with you wildly for all you know!
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