# Cheers



## J.F. de TROYES

The Christmas season is approaching with more opportunities of meeting relatives and friends and having a drink. I'd like to know if you are used to saying something like *"Cheers*" or " *Your health"* when you clink glasses.

*FRENCH *:   " *A ta santé* ! " (to one person ), "*A votre santé !* ( to several persons ) ; colloquial: "*A la tienne* !" ( to one ), " *A la vôtre !*" (to several ) ; more colloquial: "*Tchin-tchin !* "


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## CriHart

J.F. de TROYES said:


> The Christmas season is approaching with more opportunities of meeting relatives and friends and having a drink. I'd like to know if you are used to saying something like *"Cheers*" or " *Your health"* when you clink glasses.
> 
> *FRENCH *: " *A ta santé* ! " (to one person ), "*A votre santé !* ( to several persons ) ; colloquial: "*A la tienne* !" ( to one ), " *A la vôtre !*" (to several ) ; more colloquial: "*Tchin-tchin !* "


 
in Romanian: "Noroc!"(meaning Good Luck) or "Sănătate!" (meaning health)


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## Child_of_darkness

In polish it is: "Na zdrowie !"


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## gigi1

In Greek
Στην υγειά μας / Γειά μας (to our health, always plural)


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## Lemminkäinen

In Norwegian it's *skål!* _En skål_ means 'a bowl', but it comes from the Norse _skál_, så I guess it's just what they used to drink with back then


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## Jeedade

Dutch:
"Proost!"
"Op je gezondheid!" (to your health)


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## Ilmo

*Finnish*:
The "official" way to say cheers in Finnish is: *Terveydeksi*
It means: *To the health*! For some reason, the possessive pronoun is not used, nor the possessive suffix
There is also a bit antique way of saying *Maljanne*, that means literally "*Your toast*".
The colloquial saying is *kippis*. It means actually nothing.
I think that most often people say, to whom they are taking the drink or whom they want to honour with it.
For instance:
*Hääparille* or *Hääparin kunniaksi*
*To the newlyweds* or *To honour the newlyweds*
And in the corresponding way in birthday parties and any kind of rubber-chicken-circuits.


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## jazyk

In Portuguese:
Saúde! Tchin-tchin.


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## spakh

In Turkey you can drink to lots of things 
Sağlığınıza/Sağlığına (to your health)
Şerefe (to the honor) , etc.
There is a phrase 'içelim, güzelleşelim!' meaning let's drink and become nice.


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## betulina

In Catalan we also have this popular "txin-txin" and also "salut" (health). 

But most of the time, I think, what we say depends on the situation: if it's at Christmas, then we say "Bon Nadal" (Happy christmas), "Bon any" (at New Year's day), "Per molts anys" (at somebody's birthday), etc.
And if it's a couple toasting, then, we might say "per nosaltres" (for us), etc.
But it's probably the same everywhere.

Salut!


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## Miguelillo 87

In Spanish of Mexico we said ¡Salud! (Health!) if you are dedicating to someone the chers is "A tu salud" It's really similar to French.

And as Betuliona said if it'a a special ocoasion you say it.- ¡Feliz Navidad! ¡Feliz año nuevo!


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## Miguelillo 87

I've forgotten in Náhuatl it's ¡* mixtenehuan* ! (*to a person*) or ¡ mixpantzinco ! (to your fellows, you're included)


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## avalon2004

The recurring idea of toasting to health is maintained in Italian too- the main phrase is "(alla) *salute!*" As with French you can also say "*cin cin*" in informal situations.


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## Mirko_87

In Chile we say "salutero" or "salud"


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## CABARET

Servian: Zhibelí (it means "live it")
Russian: Na sdorovia (to your health)
Swedish: Skohol (It's just the sound, I don't know how to spell it,neither the meaning)
A mexican joke: Before saying "salud" they sometimes say: ¿Qué le hacía falta al muerto? ¡Salud! (What did the death man need? Health!)


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## Setwale_Charm

In German: Prost!! (if my Oktober-celebrating brain registered it correctly).
 In Russia it is: На здоровь*е* or else Ваше здоровье!!


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## elpoderoso

In Irish, Sláinte (the same i think in Scottish Gaelic)
In English Cheers, Bottoms up, Here's mud in your eye.


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## Ilmo

CABARET said:


> Swedish: Skohol (It's just the sound, I don't know how to spell it,neither the meaning)


 

The Swedish toasting word is written *Skål* and pronounced aproximately as you have indicated, however, with only one and long "oh" sound.
The word "skål" means "bowl" or "beaker".


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## Hakro

Ilmo said:


> *Finnish*:
> The colloquial saying is *kippis*. It means actually nothing.


_Kippis_ should be avoided when we are in France because it sounds like "qui pisse"!


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## ergaster

In Italy we say "(alla) salute" and "cin-cin". The word for toast is "brindisi". 
It is common to wish good luck or health to someone or something. In this case the phrase depends on the situation, but it generally starts with "a ..." or "alla ...", respectively masculine and feminine for "to" 

In Japanese is "Kanpai"
In Serbian: "Nazdravlje"


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## Outsider

jazyk said:


> In Portuguese:
> Saúde! Tchin-tchin.


Also "À nossa!" ("To ours!")


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## jazyk

I say À minha/A mim (to my [health])/(to me).


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## Ifan Saer

Bosnian - Zivjeli 
Welsh - Iechyd da
Irish - Sláinte
Scottish Gaelic - Sláinte Mhath
German (Austria) - Prost


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## J.F. de TROYES

elpoderoso said:


> In Irish, Sláinte (the same i think in Scottish Gaelic)
> In English Cheers, Bottoms up, Here's mud in your eye.


 
This last phrase looks strange ! Do you know where it comes from ? As for "Bottoms up", I suppose it is akin to the French "Cul sec !" which is only used when you wish to empty glasses at one go and it sounds a bit like a challenge.


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## J.F. de TROYES

ergaster said:


> In Italy we say "(alla) salute" and "cin-cin". The word for toast is "brindisi".
> It is common to wish good luck or health to someone or something. In this case the phrase depends on the situation, but it generally starts with "a ..." or "alla ...", respectively masculine and feminine for "to"
> 
> In Japanese is "Kanpai"
> In Serbian: "Nazdravlje"


 
The Japanese "Kanpai" sounds like Chinese 干 杯  - " gan1bei1"- which means " Dry (your) cup ".


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## ergaster

J.F. de TROYES said:


> The Japanese "Kanpai" sounds like Chinese 干杯 - " gan1bei1"- which means " Dry (your) cup ".


A Japanese guy told me the Chinese pronounciation too, but I didn't know how to write it  



J.F. de TROYES said:


> This last phrase looks strange ! Do you know where it comes from ? As for "Bottoms up", I suppose it is akin to the French "Cul sec !" which is only used when you wish to empty glasses at one go and it sounds a bit like a challenge.


That reminded me of an Italian (but maybe Tuscan only) expression with the same meaning: "Alla goccia!", literally: till the (last) drop


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## Flaminius

ergaster said:


> In Japanese is "Kanpai"



It is cognate to Mandarin "gānbēi" (乾杯/干杯).
Note that the latter character combination is not used for the Japanese word.

Further note that the transcription «kanpai» follows a Japanese phonetic rule but is misleading since 乾杯 (as a Japanese word) is pronounced /kampai/.


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## ceann-feachd

In Gaelic.

Slàinte


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## Cepkah

in bulgarian ''на здраве''-to health
               (na zdrave)
in turkish ''şerefe'' to the honor (also balkan turkish)


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## Bawslev

To say 'cheers' in Danish:   'SKAL!' (lift your glasses first, then drink immediately following) My great friend lives in Denmark now, and he is the person I recieved this information from!  Lets share the words for 'cheers' in all the other languages. ​


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## irene.acler

ergaster said:


> In Italy we say "(alla) salute" and "cin-cin". The word for toast is "brindisi".
> It is common to wish good luck or health to someone or something. In this case the phrase depends on the situation, but it generally starts with "a ..." or "alla ...", respectively masculine and feminine for "to"
> 
> In Japanese is "Kanpai"
> In Serbian: "Nazdravlje"



In Italian we also say "alla (tua/sua/vostra)", according to the person we are referring to.


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## Hakro

ergaster said:


> In Japanese is "Kanpai"


I've learned that it's "ka*m*pai". Which one is right? Can anybody confirm?


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## J.F. de TROYES

Hakro said:


> I've learned that it's "ka*m*pai". Which one is right? Can anybody confirm?


 
Please see the Flaminius's mail above (02-12-06). I think he gives you the answer.


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## Hakro

J.F. de TROYES said:


> Please see the Flaminius's mail above (02-12-06). I think he gives you the answer.


Thanks, J.F., I had somehow missed it.


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## Grefsen

Lemminkäinen said:


> In Norwegian it's *skål!* _En skål_ means 'a bowl', but it comes from the Norse _skál_, så I guess it's just what they used to drink with back then


"Skål" was one of the first Norwegian words I ever learned, but I never knew before that _"en skål_ means 'a bowl'" so "tusen takk" (1,000 thanks) *Lemminkäinen*.


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## Spectre scolaire

Chinese (Mandarin) 干杯(gānbēi) corresponds to Eng. “bottoms up!” - 干meaning “empty” – “dry” talking about a wine – and 杯 is a “glass” or a “cup”. This is precisely what all Chinese are doing in these days in connection with the _Chinese New Year_.




			
				Flaminius said:
			
		

> the transcription «kanpai» follows a Japanese phonetic rule but is misleading


I am a bit confused about Japanese. I understand the Japanese formula is a loan from Chinese 乾杯? – the first, of course, being the traditional Chinese character denoting gān (instead of simplified 干). But the problem with Japanese is that the pronunciation of a character may indicate a Japanese adaptation of the Chinese word, _or_ the character may just indicate the semantic content leaving to the Japanese themselves to realize it orally as the corresponding term _in Japanese_. My confusion here is that I don’t understand whether Japanese has got such a word.




			
				gigi1 said:
			
		

> In Greek Στην υγειά μας / Γειά μας (to our health, always plural)


Well, this is the taverna version among good friends. Στην υγειά _σας_ would perhaps be more appropriate in some other settings. Σας, “[to] your [health]” is as much of a _plural_ as μας– if that is what you mean by “always plural”. But I don’t suppose you mean that singular is excluded from the Greek version of “Cheers”?



			
				elpoderoso said:
			
		

> In Irish, Sláinte


Nobody without any knowledge of the Irish idiosyncratic orthography would guess how to pronounce this word - something like [sloncha], the last vowel being a schwa. Or what about sláinte mhath? – the last word being pronounced [va] because of the peculiar _sandhi_ in Irish – “good health [to you]”!

The corresponding Modern Western Armenian greeting is կենաց [genats], “toast [of health]”, cf. Italian brindisi.



			
				ergaster said:
			
		

> The word for toast is "brindisi".


One should perhaps put an accent on the first syllable here. I have heard too many foreigners pronouncing the Southern Italian city *Brind*ί*si. In fact, it has the same antepenultima accent as the Italian word for “Cheers!”), br*i*ndisi.

Talking about Italian --




			
				ergaster said:
			
		

> an Italian (but maybe Tuscan only) expression with the same meaning: "Alla goccia!", literally: till the (last) drop


Again, I need a precision. Curiously enough I perceive this expression as something negative, cf. fino all’ultima goccia, when you have to suffer some hardship and you go through it to the bitter end. In this expression you also use the verb ‘bere’, but it may be only with the noun ‘il calice’ that it is negative.
 
One should not _suffer_ offering a toast...




			
				Ilmo said:
			
		

> The "official" way to say cheers in Finnish is: Terveydeksi


I once heard “Cheers!” in Estonian, and that was something like this – perhaps an archaism in Estonian? Do your neighbors across the bay make you smile when they offer a toast?

How come Finnish _kippis_ does not mean anything?! If it does not ring any bells for a Finn, the word for "Cheers!" is probably a loanword – like in many other languages, apparently...


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## mcibor

Hungarian:
informal: Egészségedre!
formal:    Egészségére!

In Polish bottoms up is *Do dna*, which mean to the bottom
and some resources:
Toast in 50 languages


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## Tegs

In Irish: Sláinte (meaning 'health')
In Welsh: Iechyd Da (meaning 'good health')

And for anyone who doesn't know what they are, both these languages are Celtic languages - Irish is spoken in Ireland, and Welsh is spoken in Wales and in Patagonia, in Argentina.


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## GEmatt

We also use "_zum Wohl_", here, in German (I don't think that has been mentioned already).

In Chinese (in Taiwan, certainly), 隨意 (sui2yi4, lit. 'as you please') is also used, in case you don't want to knock your drink back in one go.

GEmatt


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## Ilmo

Spectre scolaire said:


> I once heard “Cheers!” in Estonian, and that was something like this – perhaps an archaism in Estonian? Do your neighbors across the bay make you smile when they offer a toast?




I'm sorry, I've never been drinking with an Estonian, so I cannot know, whether I would smile or not. But there certainly are in Estonian some words that make as smile, like one corresponding *torvisoittokunta* (=brass band).




Spectre scolaire said:


> How come Finnish _kippis_ does not mean anything?! If it does not ring any bells for a Finn, the word for "Cheers!" is probably a loanword – like in many other languages, apparently...


 
There is in Finnish the word *kippo*, meaning a small bowl, cup or scoop, but there is, as far as I know, no relation to that word. And though there are nowadays a lot of colloquial contractions ending *-is*, the saying "kippis" is much older. According to the Finnish grammar, there is no "official" ending "-is" for derivative words.


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## daoxunchang

In Chinese, you can omit 杯cup. Just 干 is enough.


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## Frank06

Hi,


Jeedade said:


> Dutch:
> "Proost!"
> "Op je gezondheid!" (to your health)


Some other possibilities in Dutch (maybe mainly in Flanders?):
"Schol!" (?)
"Prosit" (from German)
"Santé!" (from French)
"Gezondheid!"
"tsintsjin!" (?)

Groetjes,

Frank


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## coconutpalm

And we can say something BEFORE the "bottom up" or "Cheers!", something blessing, or wishes, etc. Or you simply say the reason why you want to 敬酒 toast to him/her/them, e.g. you want to show your gratitude, or simply that he/she/they are your elder family members or teachers or something.
If someone superior/senior to you want to 敬你的酒toast to you, he says 陪酒 which literally means accompany you to have a cup of drink.


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## Abbassupreme

In Persian:  "Be salaamati!" (lit. "To health!")


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## deine

Lithuanian:

Į sveikatą!


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## doman

Vietnamese:

*Chúc sức khỏe ! *(for health)
*Cạn ly ! *(bottle up)
*Một trăm phần trăm *(100% chalice dry- up)


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## Maja

ergaster said:


> In Serbian: "Nazdravlje"


Also: Živeli!


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## PitBullLuva

In Finnish:

Cheers! - Kippis!


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## elipez

In Denmark we also say SKÅL! Just like our "brothers and sisters" in Norway and Sweden.This is also the only word my italian in-laws know in danish


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## suslik

In Estonian: Terviseks!


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## Heartagram

In Greenlandic:
Cheers! = *Kasuutta!*


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## jana.bo99

Slovenian: ŽIVELI!

Croatian:  NA ZDRAVLJE!


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## Nizo

When *Esperanto* speakers drink together, we say, _"Sanon!" _or_ "je via sano!"_, meaning "health!" or "to your health!"


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## BlackWizard

Korean: 

건배 (gun-bae)

on a related note:


Spectre scolaire said:


> I am a bit confused about Japanese. I understand the Japanese formula is a loan from Chinese 乾杯? – the first, of course, being the traditional Chinese character denoting gān (instead of simplified 干). But the problem with Japanese is that the pronunciation of a character may indicate a Japanese adaptation of the Chinese word, _or_ the character may just indicate the semantic content leaving to the Japanese themselves to realize it orally as the corresponding term _in Japanese_. My confusion here is that I don’t understand whether Japanese has got such a word.



...I believe your initial assumption is correct - it's a word adopted from Chinese, as it is in Korea.


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## chengxi

BlackWizard said:


> Korean:
> 
> 건배 (gun-bae)
> 
> on a related note:
> 
> 
> ...I believe your initial assumption is correct - it's a word adopted from Chinese, as it is in Korea.


 

원샷(one - shot)~ 

이렇게도 하죠!


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## BlackWizard

LOL. You're right. Forgot about that. hehehehehe


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## jana.bo99

Cheers

Croatian: Živjeli!
or           Nazdravlje!


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## bb3ca201

Absolutely, mo charaid. They are indeed the same...Gaelic uses "slainte!" as well.


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## chriskardos

it depends in Hungarian to who you're saying it.
Egészségemre
Egészségedre
Egészségére
Egészségünkre
Egészségetekre
Egészségükre!


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