# to be quiet



## jancho

Hello.

How would you say "to be quiet" in several languages? It is a verb meaning not to say anything or not to make much noise.

*EDIT*:I am not interested in translating "Be quiet.", I am interested in translating the verb "to be quiet".

Most dictionaries do not that that entry.

*Czech*: mlčet, být zticha

Thank you.


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## federicoft

In Italian:

tacere


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## jancho

Thank you federicoft for your post. I have edited my post above to make it more clear.


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## apmoy70

In Greek:
Σιωπώ, Siop*o* (to be quiet)
Ησυχάζω, Isikh*a*zo (to be still)


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## Outsider

In Portuguese, you have two main choices:

*Estar calado* --> in the sense of not speaking.
*Estar quieto* --> in the sense of standing still.

Incidentally, *quieto* (< Lat. _quietus_, according to Cândido de Figueiredo's _Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa_) is a cognate of English *quiet*:



> quiet (n.)
> 
> c.1300, from O.Fr. _quiete_, from L. _quies_ (gen. _quietis_) "rest, quiet," from PIE base *_qwi_- "rest" (cf. Goth. _hveila_, O.E. _hwil_ "space of time;" see _while_). The adj. is attested from 1382; the verb is first attested 1440.


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## phosphore

Serbian: _ћутати, ćutati_ ['tɕŭ:tati]


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## Joannes

In Dutch: *zwijgen*


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## Hakro

Finnish: *vaieta, olla vaiti*

German: *schweigen*

There is a very nice song in German "Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen" that was popular in Finland some time ago, sung by a Finnish singer M. A. Numminen. You can find it in Youtube.

The original German lyrics are translated also into English: "What we cannot speak about we must consign to silence", or: "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent", the final and concluding proposition of Ludwig Wittgensteins "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus".


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## Volcano

*Turkish:

Sessiz ol*


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## Alxmrphi

Icelandic: 

_að þegja_


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## Saluton

Russian:

молчать (to keep silent)
не шуметь (make no noise)
вести себя тихо (make no noise or not too much noise, literally "behave quietly")


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## jazyk

There's also calar(-se) in Portuguese.


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## elirlandes

In Irish:
Bheith i do thost / fanacht i do thost [pronounced: veh i do hust / fon-okht i do hust]
to be in one's silence / to stay in one's silence

In the English of Ireland, you will also hear "whisht" which is an anglicisation of "thost" from the sentence above.


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## MarX

Indonesian:

*diam*, usually pronounced as _*diem*_.

*ia* (or _ie_) in this case is not a diphtong.


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## mohamed264

in arabic
هادئ (hadea)


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## DearPrudence

In French:

"*être silencieux*" (to be quiet / silent)
"*se taire*" (not to say a word, like "callarse")


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## bb3ca201

apmoy70 said:


> In Greek:
> Σιωπώ, Siop*o* (to be quiet)
> Ησυχάζω, Isikh*a*zo (to be still)


 
Side question...is "siopo" related to "siopi"?  I hear it a lot in songs...


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## Agró

In Spanish:
estar(se) callado
estar en silencio


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## apmoy70

bb3ca201 said:


> Side question...is "siopo" related to "siopi"?  I hear it a lot in songs...


Yes, σιωπή (siop*i*, noun, _f._), is silence and is related to "siopo"


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## sakvaka

Hakro said:


> Finnish: *vaieta, olla vaiti*



_vaieta_ -> 1) to stop talking, to fall silence 2) to say nothing, to hold one's tongue 

I have another suggestion: _olla hiljaa_ (to be quiet), which means almost the same as _olla vaiti_ (to say nothing). 

Or: _pitää pienempää ääntä_ ("to have smaller noise")


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## ThomasK

Dutch 
- zwijgen (not speaking, not saying a word, active word)
- stil zijn (can mean the same, but the main meaning is that one is not heard; it implies reducing the volume)

Just wondering: are the meanings "being calm" and "being silent" not mixed up here ?
Do all those verbs refer to a deliberate action ? 'Stil zijn' can be deliberate, but can also just be a description of a situation... 
Some people can even express the inchoative - yes ? - "to stop talking" - although, even in Dutch it can be the case... 

The Gaelic 'to be in *one's *silence' is quite interesting to me. It reminds me of the metaphorical "entering into silence", but it is more intriguing even...


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## RaLo18

In Hebrew-
להשקיט (_le'haskit_) (v.) (rarely used nowadays)
להיות שקט (_lihi'yot shaket_) - to be quiet (adj.)
להיות בשקט (_lihi'yot besheket_) - to be in silence
לא להוציא הגה (_lo le'otsi hegeh_) - to not make a sound


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## ThomasK

Does 'sheket/ shaket' refer to silence then ? Is it active ('creating' silence), or is it more like observing silence ? Is there a link with calmness?

Is the second one negative then (_lo_) ? There is no single verb like _se taire_ in French, _schweigen_ in German, _zwijgen_ in Dutch, then ?


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## HBZ55

mohamed264 said:


> in arabic
> هادئ (hadea)


That's the adjective, the noun "silence" is "هدوء" "hodoo2" or "سكوت" "sokoot". Actually, after thinking about it, "hodoo2" means calm not silence.


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## ThomasK

'Sokoot' reminds me of the Hebrew 'sheket', or is that a strange coincidence ?


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## RaLo18

_Shaket _is an adjective meaning quite or silent._ Sheket_ is a noun meaning quite or silence.
I think neither of them is only active or only keeping silence, both can be used for both in my opinion.
Both are linked with calmness (_shaket _= calm, _sheket_ = calmness).

The last one is negative._
lo _= no, not,_ le'otsi _= to take out,_ hegeh _= a sound.

I'm not familiar with any of the languages you mentioned. _Le'hashkit _means to become silent. There's also לשמור על השקט (_lishmor 'al ha'sheket) -_ to keep the silence. But it's used mostly on signs (in museums, theaters etc.) rather than by people.

Regarding سكوت and שקט. Hebrew and Arabic are both Semitic languages, and there many similarities between them. It's also very common that _sh _and_ s_ sounds are switched (_khamesh_ in Hebrew, _khamsa_ in Arabic, for five).


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## mataripis

Tagalog: to be quite= Manahimik  / quite/be quite= tumahimik


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## Encolpius

Yes, we can say English lacks that sort of verb....

*magyar *hallgat (verb) < hall [to hear]


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## ThomasK

But what is 'hallgat'? To remain silent? -- Do you have a separate word for 'quiet' in Hungarian?


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## Encolpius

hallgat = zwijgen
quiet > halk


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## Thomas1

Polish:
być/siedzieć (informal) cicho -- be/sit quiet
milczeć -- not say anything


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## Halfdan

Swedish:
tystna - to become silent


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## ger4

Encolpius said:


> *magyar *hallgat (verb) < hall [to hear]





Encolpius said:


> hallgat = zwijgen
> quiet > halk


Latvian:
_klusēt_ = to be silent, not to say anything < _klusums_ =quiet, quietness (noun)
_klausīties_ = to listen

A link between being quiet and listening? It seems quite obvious...


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## ThomasK

Joannes said:


> In Dutch: *zwijgen*


... or 'stil zijn', lit. 'be silent' but also 'be quiet, be calm'..

There is an Obvious link between quiet and listening indeed, yet it is not expressed in Dutch or any Germanic language as far as I can see. An etymological dictionary even suggesting that 'loud'  is more like a derivation of IE 'to hear'... But so there is some link, but more like a "reverse" link...


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## 810senior

In Japanese:
黙る damaru: to shut (one's mouth), to keep silent.
静まる shizumaru: to become silent.


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## ThomasK

'The funny thing is: the English _quiet_ refers to Lat. 'quies', which is rest. Yet, most of us associate it with some kind of silence, yet that word is fairly uncommon, it seems to me. The main difference might be : the quiet, as rest, allows a speaker to speak, offers enough semi-silence, not the rigid silence...

Just by the way: come to think of it, but isn't this *maru* the prefix you had in _year-round_? Doesn't it mean 'ull' or 'complete'? That reminds me: the Japanese _*zen*_ refers to wholeness too, doesn't it?

Any parallel in Japanese when you are asking an audience to be quiet so that a speaker can get started?


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## SuperXW

I don't think we have a VERB for that in Chinese.
We use the adjective 安靜 for "quite", 寂靜 for "silent", etc.
For "getting quite", we may say 變得安靜 ("becoming quite") or 安靜下來 ("quite down").


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## ThomasK

How would you translate 'quiet' in the sense of 'calm'?


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## SuperXW

ThomasK said:


> How would you translate 'quiet' in the sense of 'calm'?


"Calm" is associate with 冷静 instead of 安静 in Chinese.
They are basically different. For example:
"Calm down (冷静)! It will be alright!" VS. "Quite (安静)! You kids are too noisy!"

The character 静 is associate with both "quiet, silent" and "still, not moving".
So literally:
冷静(calm) = “cold” + "still"
安静(quiet) = "peace" + "quiet"


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## 810senior

ThomasK said:


> Just by the way: come to think of it, but isn't this *maru* the prefix you had in _year-round_? Doesn't it mean 'ull' or 'complete'? That reminds me: the Japanese _*zen*_ refers to wholeness too, doesn't it?



Nope it doesn't have to do with _maru _as prefix at all.
The maru here means kind of a intransitive marker: shizu-mu(obsolete, to calm down), shizu-m*eru*(to calm down, transitive), shizu-m*aru*(to calm down, intransitive). (you can probably see the contrast between -eru and -aru.)

Zen perfectly matches what you thought of but it only works as element making a kanji-compound word, zentai(wholeness), zen'in(everyone), zenkou(the whole school) and so forth.



ThomasK said:


> Any parallel in Japanese when you are asking an audience to be quiet so that a speaker can get started?


I think I'd say "お静かにお願いしますoshizuka ni onegai shimasu(I hope you keep silent)", "静かにしてくださいshizuka ni shite kudasai(keep silent, please)". (shizuka means silent, quite).


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## apmoy70

apmoy70 said:


> In Greek:
> Σιωπώ, Siop*o* (to be quiet)
> Ησυχάζω, Isikh*a*zo (to be still)


Apologies for quoting myself, but even after six years, allow me to correct myself, the two are not exactly the same:

MoGr v. *«σιωπώ»* [si.oˈpo] < Classical v. *«σιωπάω/σιωπῶ» sĭōpáō* (uncontracted)/ *sĭōpô* (contracted) --> _to be silent, silence_ (with obscure etymology).
MoGr v. *«ησυχάζω»* [isiˈxazo] < Classical denominative v. *«ἡσυχάζω» hēsŭkʰázō* --> _to be quiet, still, bring to rest_ < Classical fem. noun *«ἡσυχίᾱ» hēsŭkʰíā* --> _quiteness, quietitude, stillness_ (with obscure etymology).


apmoy70 said:


> Yes, σιωπή (siop*i*, noun, _f._), is silence and is related to "siopo"


The feminine noun *«σιωπή»* [si.oˈpi] < Classical fem. *«σιωπὴ» sĭōpḕ* --> _silence_ is the deverbal of *«σιωπῶ»*. 
Angry Greek moms usually shout at their boisterous kids *«σιωπή!»* [si.oˈpi] (instead of "be quiet!").


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