# hello, goodbye



## natasha2000

How do you greet someone whom you pass by in the street? Hello, and just go by, goodbye, and go by, or hello and goodbye?

I'll explain the reason for this question. In Serbia, when I meet in the street someone whom I know superficially, like a neighbour, or a friend of a friend, a parent of some friend, i.e. someone whom I want to greet, but I do not want to stop and engage any kind of conversation, we simply say "hello" or "good day/morning/evening". And that's it. Now here in Spain, I always meet a grosery woman in front of my building, and I say to her "Hello" (Hola) and she always says to me "goodbye" (Adeu). At first I was confused, then I thought she didn't like me, because I understood her saying "goodbye" instead of "hello" as "Yea, yea.. goodbye"... Then I paid a little closer attention to my neighbours in the building. Some of them even said "hello" when we met, and if we went upstairs for some time together, in front of my door they even say to me goodbye! Then I asked some friends Spaniards about this and they told me it was completely normal here to say "goodbye" when you meet someone as described, even more frequent than to say "hello".

What do you think about this? What is the custom in your country? I am also interested in knowing if this goes for entire Spain, or there are differences depending on the part of the country.
What do you say when you see your neighbour? Hello or goodbye? Or both? How would you feel if someone said to you something different from what you're used to hear?


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## moura

Hi Natasha,

In Portugal, when people have some acquaintance, the more used word to say when we meet is "olá", the word for "hello" or "hola" (Spanish).
But if we are not acquainted enough we say the Portuguese words for good-day (morning), afternoon, night, depending of the hour of the day. If someone makes a mistake (I often do) and say "good-day" in the afternoon, we receive either an ironic smile or some dissertions about "yes it is still a day, not night", etc.

For goodbye we prefer to say the word for "see you later". It is very rare to say the word for good-bye _(adeus) _- it seems that we would never see the person again.

I have been in Galicia these last holidays and got used to say "hasta luego" even if I and the person in question knew that probably we wouldn't see each other again. I took the impression that the Spanish uses this words quite often.


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## .   1

G'day Natasha,
Aussies have a range of things to say when we pass slight aquaintances but all of these things are also said to good friends as conversation starters.
We say things like:
G'day or Howareya or Howjabe(How would you be).
The difference is the eye contact.  If I want to engage in conversation I will maintain eye contact.  If I want to brush the person off I will nod my head and avert my eyes as I say it.

.,,


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## BlueWolf

Well, this problem doesn't really exist in Italian, since almost all the greetings mean both the things, hello and goodbye. The only exception is "arrivederci/La", that means only goodbye, and it's used as goodbye.


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## natasha2000

Hello again...

I think only Bluewolf understood my poor English...

My astonishment was that people say to me goodbye (a farewell greeting) instead of hello, good day/morning/night whatever you say when you enter to some place, and not when you leave.

Imagine you go down the street, and see your neighbour coming. You look at him, and you're supposed to say: hello, good day/morning/evening. But you say "goodbye". Isn't that a little odd?


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## belén

Well, I don't find it odd, maybe because what you describe happens where I come from as well. I think it's just a pragmatic action, you are not going to stop to chat, so you might as well say goodbye and get it over with.. I really think that's the reason...

Bye 

Belén


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## researcher

I think the direction of movement also plays a part. If someone is approaching (stranger or not) you would say "Hello" or "Good morning/evening" or "Buenos dias/buenas noches." If you're greeting someone who is moving away then "Goodbye" or "Adios" would be appropriate. Maybe that helps...


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## Victoria32

natasha2000 said:


> How do you greet someone whom you pass by in the street? Hello, and just go by, goodbye, and go by, or hello and goodbye?
> 
> I'll explain the reason for this question. In Serbia, when I meet in the street someone whom I know superficially, like a neighbour, or a friend of a friend, a parent of some friend, i.e. someone whom I want to greet, but I do not want to stop and engage any kind of conversation, we simply say "hello" or "good day/morning/evening". And that's it. Now here in Spain, I always meet a grosery woman in front of my building, and I say to her "Hello" (Hola) and she always says to me "goodbye" (Adeu). At first I was confused, then I thought she didn't like me, because I understood her saying "goodbye" instead of "hello" as "Yea, yea.. goodbye"... Then I paid a little closer attention to my neighbours in the building. Some of them even said "hello" when we met, and if we went upstairs for some time together, in front of my door they even say to me goodbye! Then I asked some friends Spaniards about this and they told me it was completely normal here to say "goodbye" when you meet someone as described, even more frequent than to say "hello".
> 
> What do you think about this? What is the custom in your country? I am also interested in knowing if this goes for entire Spain, or there are differences depending on the part of the country.
> What do you say when you see your neighbour? Hello or goodbye? Or both? How would you feel if someone said to you something different from what you're used to hear?


It depends, but mostly just "Hello", or "good morning" or if it is someone I know well, I might say "Good morning, lovely weather today"... and there is an exchange of smiles and on we go. I had a woman who knows me (I think) say yesterday to me "Going to work?" and I just said "Yes", she said something else unimportant but by then, I was past her...


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## natasha2000

belen said:


> Well, I don't find it odd, maybe because what you describe happens where I come from as well. I think it's just a pragmatic action, you are not going to stop to chat, so you might as well say goodbye and get it over with.. I really think that's the reason...
> 
> Bye
> 
> Belén


 
Hejhehe, I don't have the slightest doubt that this to you sounds the most normal thing in the world. As a matter of fact, my spanish friends gave me the same explanation. But I really puzzled me, and even more, for some time I thought this woman doesn't like me!


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## fenixpollo

natasha2000 said:


> Imagine you go down the street, and see your neighbour coming. You look at him, and you're supposed to say: hello, good day/morning/evening. But you say "goodbye".


 No, I can't imagine that. In the US, such a "greeting" would be interpreted as extremely sarcastic and rude.

On the other hand, our typical American greetings include the superficial and fake "How are you doing?" (or, after periodcommacomma's model above, "Howya doon?") -- which appears to be a question, but most people don't want a reply or to engage in conversation. This makes our typical "greeting" very empty and meaningless, indeed. 

Perhaps it would be better not to feign interest and greet each other with "goodbye".


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## mytwolangs

In america, if a one word greeting is given to a passer-by, friend or stranger, then just "hello/good day/hey/[whatever..]" works. NO parting greeting needed.
BUT if even the smallest talk is made, THEN a parting greeting is in order...

Hello
how ya doing?
Alright, just headed to work.
Well alright then, have a good day...

OR for the one word - 
"Hey"
"good morning"

Our one word greeting for "hello" and "good bye" all in one is "Hey".


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## natasha2000

fenixpollo said:


> No, I can't imagine that. In the US, such a "greeting" would be interpreted as extremely sarcastic and rude.


 
Exactly my point. That is why I thought the woman doesn't like me.
Nevertheless, in Spain it is completely normal to say goodbye.


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## natasha2000

mytwolangs said:


> In america, if a one word greeting is given to a passer-by, friend or stranger, then just "hello/good day/hey/[whatever..]" works. NO parting greeting needed.
> BUT if even the smallest talk is made, THEN a parting greeting is in order...
> 
> Hello
> how ya doing?
> Alright, just headed to work.
> Well alright then, have a good day...
> 
> OR for the one word -
> "Hey"
> "good morning"
> 
> Our one word greeting for "hello" and "good bye" all in one is "Hey".


 
Same in my country. But if you don't have any kind of conversation, we never say goodbye.


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## .   1

fenixpollo said:


> No, I can't imagine that. In the US, such a "greeting" would be interpreted as extremely sarcastic and rude.


No, I can't imagine that. In the USAustralia, such a "greeting" would be interpreted as extremely sarcastic and rude.

.,,


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## Lusitania

Well, it depends on the situation:
I can just wave my head if it's a formal contact and not say anything.

Usually when I say Hello people say Hello back to me if I say Good Morning they will reply the same. Até logo, Ciao or Adeus to mean goodbye would come later.

I would find it rude if someone would reply goodbye to my Hello. It usually doesn't happen.

But also in Spain I never noticed it. I will try to pay attention next time I'm there.


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## Maja

Another curiosity is that in Serbia (as a more relaxed variant, amongst friends and youngsters) we say ĆAO (ciao) both as hello and goodbye.
But when I said it to my Bulgarian friends  as a hello, they were bewildered because they use ciao only as a  goodbye!!!


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## Heba

When greeting slight aquaintances, Egyptians use ''AlSalamu- Alaikum'' or ''Hi'' , nod and smile.

Some people, me icluded, would add ''ezayak?'' (when addressing a male) - ''ezayek?'' (when addressing a female) which means ''how are you doing?'' without expecting a reply.

The use of valedictory words would sound strange and not accepted in such a context. I think that if I used bye in such a situation, the other person would think that I used the wrong word because I was in a hurry or busy thinking about something , and therefore, did not use the right words.


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## Hockey13

In the New York City area, where I grew up, it makes perfect sense to have this interaction:

Person A: "How's it goin'?"
Person B: "What's up?"

And then everyone continues along their way. I would say these two phrases are by far the most common for me (or perhaps my age group), and one can understand both of them to usually mean "Hello."


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## emma42

Natasha, what are the actual Spanish words used in the situation you describe?


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## Etcetera

In Russia, when we meet in the street, we say just "Hello". 
However, if we stop to talk about something, even if this conversation is very short, it's common to say to each other "Goodbye" before parting.


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## Chaska Ñawi

There was a period here when teenaged males combined "hello" and "goodbye" in one phrase - "How's it hangin, man?"

I haven't heard it since leaving high school, but wouldn't be surprised if the expression has survived in some dark linguistic recesses of the country.


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## Lusitania

emma42 said:


> Natasha, what are the actual Spanish words used in the situation you describe?


 

She probably says Hola and they reply Hasta luego.

The spanish are very pragmatic, as they probably gather they won't stop to speak they just spare words.


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## natasha2000

emma42 said:


> Natasha, what are the actual Spanish words used in the situation you describe?


 

As I already said, Emma, I always say Hello - Hola. But they say to me Goodbye - Adeu. As a matter of fact, it is not Spanish, it's Catalan, so maybe this kind of salutation is limited to Catalonia, I don't know. I also have to say that not always people say to me "adeu" in such situations, some of them say also hola, like I say. But sometimes they also say hello and goodbye, (hola-adeu/adios) if we for example, enter the building together and go upstairs for some time together. Then, when we enter the building, they say hola, I say hola. But when we come to my apartment, or theirs, (depending on whose apartment comes first) they also say goodbye, and I don't say anyting. At least I used to say nothing, now I try to answer in the same way becaause I don't want to be considered rude.


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## Lusitania

I love it Adeu, Adeus, Adios Nothing like sending the person directly to God 

Have you asked any Catalan the reason for this. Maybe there is no reason at all.

For example, here in Portugal if you enter the building with your neighboor the first to close the door always says "excuse me" before closing the door. My friends from germany that came here didn't understood why we'd do this. It seems like we are asking for authorization to close our own door. 

This is probably one of those things...


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## natasha2000

belen said:


> Well, I don't find it odd, maybe because what you describe happens where I come from as well. I think it's just a pragmatic action, you are not going to stop to chat, so you might as well say goodbye and get it over with.. I really think that's the reason...
> 
> Bye
> 
> Belén


 
Hi, Lusitania... 

Here's the explanation I got from my friends, Catalans/Spaniards.


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## Lusitania

Hi Natasha,

That's what I thought. The same with my german friends. It's the price for being a mediterrean in a nordic country or vice versa.


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## Antpax

> natasha2000 said:
> 
> 
> 
> Then I asked some friends Spaniards about this and they told me it was completely normal here to say "goodbye" when you meet someone as described, even more frequent than to say "hello".
> 
> quote]
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Hi everybody,
> 
> I might be wrong, but I think a Spanish opinion would be interesting, although expressed with my limited English.
> 
> Maybe it is a regional matter, but I would not say that saying "goodbye" rather than "hello" when meeting someone is more frequent than saying "hello". The usual is to say "hola", "buenos días" or just "buenas". Ok, it is not rude saying "goodbye" (although I do not like it) but not normal either.
> 
> Cheers.
> 
> Ant
Click to expand...


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## Lusitania

Maja said:


> Another curiosity is that in Serbia (as a more relaxed variant, amongst friends and youngsters) we say ĆAO (ciao) both as hello and goodbye.
> But when I said it to my Bulgarian friends as a hello, they were bewildered because they use ciao only as a goodbye!!!


 

In Portugal it's also more used as goodbye as well. We say Tchau, xau and other Ciaos.


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## Lusitania

Antpax said:


> Maybe it is a regional matter, but I would not say that saying "goodbye" rather than "hello" when meeting someone is more frequent than saying "hello". The usual is to say "hola", "buenos días" or just "buenas". Ok, it is not rude saying "goodbye" (although I do not like it) but not normal either.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Yes, 'cause I'd never heard that before in Spain, people would say hola and Hasta luego or something. It's not very common in other parts of Spain I think.
Click to expand...


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## minicooper

In Greek you can say "GEIA" both when you are coming or leaving, but you can also add "GEIA, TI KANEIS?" (HELLO, HOW ARE YOU? - &iexcl;HOLA!, &iquest;COMO ESTAS?) OR "GEIA, TA LEME!" (BYE, SEE YOU! - &iexcl;SALUDOS, HASTA LUEGO!)


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## natasha2000

Antpax said:


> Hi everybody,
> 
> I might be wrong, but I think a Spanish opinion would be interesting, although expressed with my limited English.
> 
> Maybe it is a regional matter, but I would not say that saying "goodbye" rather than "hello" when meeting someone is more frequent than saying "hello". The usual is to say "hola", "buenos días" or just "buenas". Ok, it is not rude saying "goodbye" (although I do not like it) but not normal either.
> 
> Cheers.
> 
> Ant
> 
> 
> 
> 
> But Ant, your opinion is more than welcome, especially because you come from dofferent part of Spain. So, in Madrid, people also say "adios" if they see each other in the street, and want just to greet each other, but not to stop to talk?
Click to expand...


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## Antpax

natasha2000 said:


> Antpax said:
> 
> 
> 
> But Ant, your opinion is more than welcome, especially because you come from dofferent part of Spain. So, in Madrid, people also say "adios" if they see each other in the street, and want just to greet each other, but not to stop to talk?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Sometimes is normally used when you meet someone in a door (at your building door for example), I mean, it is clear one of them is leaving somewhere so, one can say "hello" and the other say "goodbye". But, in the middle of the street is not commonly used, I think.
> 
> Actually, if you someone says "hello" and you answer "goodbye" with a wrong entonation, it can be considered very rude.
> 
> Ant
Click to expand...


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## Mei

Hi all there,

I agree with Belen and Ant. I always say "goodbye" but it's just because I won't stop to talk. I've talked about it with some friends and now I try to say "Hello" but it's not easy...  I've been all my life saying "bye" (well I always say "Dew" that comes from "Adéu" in catalan)

Cheers

Mei


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## Criselectrical

I live in Spain, and I use "hello" or "goodbye" in the same manner when i see somebody in the street. For me both of them are only greetings and they have no a special meaning.


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## natasha2000

Criselectrical said:


> I live in Spain, and I use "hello" or "goodbye" in the same manner when i see somebody in the street. For me both of them are only greetings and they have no a special meaning.


 
Can you tell us which part of Spain, if it is not too much to ask? It's a pure curiosity. Thank you very much.


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## Criselectrical

natasha2000 said:


> Can you tell us which part of Spain, if it is not too much to ask? It's a pure curiosity. Thank you very much.


 
I live in the North-west of Spain


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## .   1

Now that I think about it it occurs to me that Aussies don't generally say goodbye except in a dismissive or curt manner which means that we hope never to meet that person again.
We say things like 'see you later' or 'I'll be on my way' or 'I won't be keeping you' or 'I'll leave you to what you were doing' or 'I'll be on my bike'.  
There must be dozens of phrases similar to those but I just can't think of any with goodbye in them.
My wife and her wog mates say goodbye all the time and it just feels odd to me.

.,,


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## übermönch

We've got different greetings for people we randomly meet on street-
_"Morže"
="morning"
"Tach"
="day"
"Awwen"
="evening"_
And it's told to everyone you encounter if it's not too crowded. The answer is the same.

And ones you use when inciting a conversation-
_"Ei gude, wie?"
-"jo, gude"
[...]
"Ma's gud"
-"Tschao"_

_"Ey good, not?"
-"yes, good."
[...]
"Do it good."
-"Ciao"_

The standard German greetings as _Guten Tag _or _Hallo, Aufwiedersehen _and _Tschüss _are only used when you're starting or ending some serious dialog; when misused it makes you very suspicious.


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## Thomas F. O'Gara

Natasha, I'm surprised that your Spanish friends couldn't give you a better explanation.  My understanding is that it's common practice to say "adios" when you meet someone _as long as you don't intend to stop and talk further.  _As far as I know there's nothing the least bit rude in this, and I've encountered it in Latin America as well as in Spain.


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## natasha2000

Thomas F. O'Gara said:


> Natasha, I'm surprised that your Spanish friends couldn't give you a better explanation. My understanding is that it's common practice to say "adios" when you meet someone _as long as you don't intend to stop and talk further. _As far as I know there's nothing the least bit rude in this, and I've encountered it in Latin America as well as in Spain.


 
No, Thomas, of course there is nothing rude in it, it's just unusual for my point of view, since in my culture, you don't greet saying adios/bye/goodbye when you pass by someone you know. Of course, if I stop and exchange some nice words with a person, then Serbs also say Hello, blah blah blah and goodbye/bye/see ya/ whatever greeting when you go away.
I susspected that in Latin America they do the same, since in my building there are also many people from Latin America... And they do exactly the same thing...

I asked varous people, some young, some old, and all of them gave me the same answer: it's that I am going away, so it is ok to say goodbye...


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## natasha2000

. said:


> Now that I think about it it occurs to me that Aussies don't generally say goodbye except in a dismissive or curt manner which means that we hope never to meet that person again.
> We say things like 'see you later' or 'I'll be on my way' or 'I won't be keeping you' or 'I'll leave you to what you were doing' or 'I'll be on my bike'.
> There must be dozens of phrases similar to those but I just can't think of any with goodbye in them.
> My wife and her wog mates say goodbye all the time and it just feels odd to me.
> 
> .,,


 
But they don't say it when they meet, don't they? 
When I think it better, in Serbian, in informal speech, we rarely say goodbye. We usually say chao, or zdravo, which can be used both when you are coming as well as when you leaving. If you want to be more polite, then you say dovidjenja, but I cannot think of any better English translation than "see you later". There is a better translation to Spanish, though, which would be Hasta luego, or hasta la vista. No, we never say goodbye (zbogom) unless you think you will never see this person again. It's also a little bit melodramatic greeting, maybe better translation to English would be "farewell" ...


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## Lusitania

natasha2000 said:


> No, we never say goodbye (zbogom) unless you think you will never see this person again. It's also a little bit melodramatic greeting, maybe better translation to English would be "farewell" ...


 
More melodramatic than Adios or Adeus that is sending the person directly to God?


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## Maja

Lusitania said:


> More melodramatic than Adios or Adeus that is sending the person directly to God?


Actually ZBOGOM, literally means "With God". The original form was "s bogom", but after becoming one word, S became Z due to phonetic interaction.


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## Lusitania

So it's different, we say adeus a/to deus/god. Literally.


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## natasha2000

Lusitania said:


> So it's different, we say adeus a/to deus/god. Literally.


 
Well, it's basically the same. It implies God.
There is an old Spanish greeting *Vaya con Dios *(I suppose in Prtugese it must be something very similar) which would mean exactly the same Go with God. I am inclined to believe that ADIOS came out from this expression...


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## Lore bat

natasha2000 said:


> Exactly my point. That is why I thought the woman doesn't like me.
> Nevertheless, in Spain it is completely normal to say goodbye.



I don't think it's normal to say "goodbye" when someone says "hello" in the situation you described in your first post. I would thought that:
1. She/he is rude.
2. She/he doesn´t like me (and is rude).
3. She/he have gotten angry with me.
3. She/he is joking.


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## Vanda

*[*QUOTE]Vaya con Dios (I suppose in Portugese it must be something very similar) which would mean exactly the same Go with God. I am inclined to believe that ADIOS came out from this expression.../QUOTE]

Right, Natasha.  In Portuguese: *Vá com Deus*. Adeus comes from 
_de a + Deus_. I think it is true for Spanish too.


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## Lusitania

Yes, we have it like Vanda just wrote. Vá com Deus. Very similar. Nice


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