# Well



## Setwale_Charm

I have always got problems with this petty word - a marvellous sentence filler! How would all of you translate a phrase like "Well,...." into your language?


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## DrWatson

Well, D) in Finnish, one could say something like:

"*No*,..."
"*No tuota*,..."
"*Jaaha*,..."
or simply mumbling "*Ööö...*" which is something like "Umm..." in English.


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## Honour

In TR, We say *peki*/*pek iyi* which means *good*/*very good* consecutively (just like bon/bueno/bom in fr/isp/pt). However, they could mean *OK *according to the context they are used in.
We also use the word *şey *which is a loan word from arabic meaning *thing*.
There may be other words which i can't remember now.


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## macta123

In Hindi

"Achcha (to)...... " OR " Han, ..... "


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## Heba

In MSA *حسنا (hasanan)*
In Egyptian colloquial Arabic,* طيب* (tayeb). Some people might use other words though


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## DrLindenbrock

In Italian the most common word is *be'* , a truncated form for *bene (*good, fine, well). 
E.g. Tutto bene? Be', diciamo di sì. / _Everything fine? Well, let's say so._

There is also *allora* (so, then), used as a question word (with the sense of "so? how are you?") and also as an introduction when telling a story or reporting a fact.
E.g. Allora? Tutto bene? / _So? Everything fine?_
Come hai sentito la notizia? Allora, l'ho chiesto a mio figlio, e lui l'aveva letto sul giornale. / _How did you hear about the news? So/well, I asked my son, and he had read about it on the newspaper._
Parlami del tuo viaggio? Allora, siamo stati in Spagna, prima a Madrid poi in Andalusia. / _Tell me about your trip? So, we went to Spain, first to Madrid, then to Andalusia._

Enjoy


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## alitza

In Romanian we use "păi", which is a sentence filler, as Setwale well put it, and suggests that the speaker is "stalling", trying to remember something or to put his/her thoughts in order.
Cate ţări aţi vizitat in vacanţă? Păi, am fost in Franţa, Italia, Spania si Germania..deci patru.
How many countries have you visited on holidays? Well, we went to France, Italy, Spain and Germany..that makes four.


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## Confused Linguist

Bengali: *ta*


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## avalon2004

As a learner of Greek I have been told to use *λοιπόν* [leepón] if the "well" is a discourse marker to move on in a conversation and change topic.. (e.g. "well, as I was saying" = "_λοιπόν_, όπως έλεγα..."
I suppose you could also say something like *ε* [eh] or *και* [ke] which have no real semantic value in this context.


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## avalon2004

In Spanish you can usually say the direct translation "bueno":

So what time are you coming tonight?--> *¿Pues qué hora vas a venir esta noche?*
Well, the thing is I can't--> *Bueno...es que no puedo

*You may also hear any of the following used as general fillers:* Pues, entonces, así (que), ahora, ya, este, es que
*


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## 1234plet

*In Danish:*

Well - nå ('nåeh, såh' these two are only used when talking)
Uhm - øhm; øh


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## Outsider

In Portuguese, you can say *Bem...* (literally "Well..."), or *Bom...* ("Good...")


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## Mutichou

In French, we say "bon" (well), "alors", (so, then), "euh", (er).


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## Maja

In Serbian: probably "Pa"


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## Chazzwozzer

Turk said:


> In TR, We say *peki*/*pek iyi* which means *good*/*very good* consecutively (just like bon/bueno/bom in fr/isp/pt). However, they could mean *OK *according to the context they are used in.
> We also use the word *şey *which is a loan word from arabic meaning *thing*.
> There may be other words which i can't remember now.



In addition to Turk,

"Pekâlâ..." may correspond to "Well..." but it's still awkward and I would never use it. However,


Eeee, öööö and ııııı are typical Turkish discourse markers.
İşte as in "İşte ne bileyim!" might well translated as "Well, how am I supposed to know?" or something like that.
Vallaha as in "Vallaha... Ne diyeceğimi bilmiyorum." would mean "Well... I don't know what to say."
......


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## robbie_SWE

alitza said:


> In Romanian we use "păi", which is a sentence filler, as Setwale well put it, and suggests that the speaker is "stalling", trying to remember something or to put his/her thoughts in order.
> Cate ţări aţi vizitat in vacanţă? Păi, am fost in Franţa, Italia, Spania si Germania..deci patru.
> How many countries have you visited on holidays? Well, we went to France, Italy, Spain and Germany..that makes four.


 
And I've heard people say "*bon*" (with a long o), just like in Italian. 

 robbie


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## linguist786

In *Gujarati*, we say "itlay" quite a lot when we don't know what to say.

In *Urdu* and *Arabic*, the word "yaani" (يعنى) is used quite often as a filler word.

It's funny because "itlay" and "yaani" mean exactly the same thing literally - "meaning"


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## Whodunit

In German, you can use "*also*," "*so*," or "*nun*." These are the ones you can find in dictionaries. Other grumbling expressions/interjections are:

*Hmm*, ...
*Umm*, ...
*Ja*, ...
*Ehm*/*Ähm*/*Em*/*Ehem*, ...


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## Honour

linguist786 said:


> In *Urdu* and *Arabic*, the word "yaani" (يعنى) is used quite often as a filler word.
> 
> It's funny because "itlay" and "yaani" mean exactly the same thing literally - "meaning"


 
In turkish, we use *yani* both as a filler word and also for "i mean/it means", "e.g."... Yani, that is interesting


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## Frank06

Hi,


Setwale_Charm said:


> I have always got problems with this petty word - a marvellous sentence filler! How would all of you translate a phrase like "Well,...." into your language?



In *Dutch* it can be 'wel'.
If you have a long pause to fill, you can say 'wel, euh'. Both the 'l' and the 'eu' can be stretched 

Groetjes,

Frank


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## Marga H

In Polish:
No więc..,tak więc..,otóż..


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## optimistique

Frank06 said:


> Hi,
> 
> 
> In *Dutch* it can be 'wel'.
> If you have a long pause to fill, you can say 'wel, euh'. Both the 'l' and the 'eu' can be stretched
> 
> Groetjes,
> 
> Frank



And in addition to that: *Nou* and if it is a question also: *En(ne)? *


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## kusurija

In Czech:
(word-to-word = dobře)
Takže... (so (that))
No...


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## nimak

Maja said:


> In Serbian: probably "Pa"



Same in *Macedonian*:

*Па...* (Pa...) _or_ *Е, па...* (E, pa...)


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## Dymn

*Catalan*: _bé _"well" or _bo _"good" (the latter I've only heard it in Valencian), although the Castilianism "_bueno_" is very common anyway, as it also is in Galician and Basque.


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## Welsh_Sion

There was a discussion here about possible French equivalences:

bah oui , ben oui

In Welsh, I guess the filler, is very similar to Dutch: '*Wel ...'*


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## Dymn

Whodunit said:


> In German, you can use "*also*," "*so*," or "*nun*." These are the ones you can find in dictionaries. Other grumbling expressions/interjections are:
> 
> *Hmm*, ...
> *Umm*, ...
> *Ja*, ...
> *Ehm*/*Ähm*/*Em*/*Ehem*, ...


I would add "_naja_", which is my go-to option.



Welsh_Sion said:


> In Welsh, I guess the filler, is very similar to Dutch: '*Wel ...'*


That's interesting. Is this word prone to be borrowed by minority languages?


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