# More or less!



## jana.bo99

I didn't see it in Forum, but we use it a lot (in Slovenia).
I didn't hear it very often in English either.


Slovenian:   Več ali manj

Croatian:     Više ili manje (not much in use)

German:       Mehr oder weniger

Spanish:       Mas o menos


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## Trisia

*Romanian*: Mai mult sau mai puţin


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## Setwale_Charm

I do not know why you say you have not heard it much in English, it is very common here.

Estonian: enam-vähem
Latvian: daudzmaz
Russian: более или менее


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## MarX

Indonesian:

kurang lebih

(less more)


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## Setwale_Charm

Hungarian: többé-kevésbé


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## Salegrosso

Italian: Più o meno.


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## Setwale_Charm

Polish: mniej więcej
Czech: více (nebo) méně


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## Outsider

Portuguese: *mais ou menos*, as in English.
French: 


*plus ou moins*, as in English.
*à peu près*, "to little close", that is "closely".


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## Joannes

It's another order in Dutch: *min of meer*.

(However, in a non idiomatic sense you would get for example *Hier, drie dozen, wil je er meer of minder?* 'Here you are, three boxes, do you want more or less?')


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## deine

Lithuanian:

Daugiau ar mažiau.



jana.bo99 said:


> Spanish: Mas o menos


 
Little correction: Más o menos.


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## Chazzwozzer

*Turkish:* az çok


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## Setwale_Charm

Chazzwozzer said:


> *Turkish:* az çok


 
This seems to be the shortest one


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## kiyama

Català: més o menys


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## panjabigator

Castellano: Más o menos
Panjabi: /takriiban/
Hindi: /lagbhag/
Urdu: /kariib/


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## michimz

Nahuatl: más o menos (It´s borrowed from Spanish in this dialect because unfortunately, like most native languages, if not all, it is shifting and dying.)


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## Nizo

In *Esperanto*:  _pli-malpli_.


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## elroy

The literal translation in Arabic would be أكثر أو أقل, but the phrase is not used in an idiomatic sense as in English and many other languages.


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## linguist786

panjabigator said:


> Castellano: Más o menos
> Panjabi: /takriiban/
> Hindi: /lagbhag/
> Urdu: /kariib/


We use takriiban in Urdu too (*تقريبًا*) which is taken directly from Arabic. Kariib is used as well of course.

Gujarati is the same as Hindi: lagbhag


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## panjabigator

Is there a word /kariiban/ as well?


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## linguist786

panjabigator said:


> Is there a word /kariiban/ as well?


Not in Urdu. It exists in Arabic and is the accusative form of "qariib". It's in the Qur'aan as well: innahum yarawnahu ba`eedaa, wanaraahu *qariibaa. *(They see it as far away, we see it as near). _It_ being the Day of Judgement.

(when you stop at the word, it's pronounced "qariibaa", not "qariiban")


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## panjabigator

Does the word have the two dash marks above it to make the "n" sound?


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## linguist786

panjabigator said:


> Does the word have the two dash marks above it to make the "n" sound?


Yes, that's called a _tanween_. In Urdu we call it _do zabar_ (two zabars, literally). You also have two other types of tanween (_do pesh_ *فٌ *& _do zer_ *فٍ*) pronounced "-un" and "-in" respectively.

One peculiar thing to note is that with _do zabar_, there is an extra "alif" added to the letter. With _do pesh_ and _do zer_, there is no extra alif. (To make it clearer: *ت**قريبً* is wrong, it must be *تقريبًا*)


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## Alijsh

Persian: *kamâbiš *(کمابیش), *kam-o biš *(کم و بیش). *kam*: little ("less" is comparative of "little"), *biš*: many, much ("more" is comparative of both). *-â-* is a midfix.


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## kusurija

deine said:


> Lithuanian:
> 
> Daugiau ar mažiau.


This means word-by-word the same as in English. There is another word:
daugmaž: approximately
Similary in Czech:
Více nebo méně: word-by-word the same as in English.
Víceméně: much the same, generally saying, without regard to details. 
In Japanese:

多少[tasho:]


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## Abbassupreme

Alijsh said:


> Persian: *kamâbiš *(کمابیش), *kam-o biš *(کم و بیش). *kam*: little ("less" is comparative of "little"), *biš*: many, much ("more" is comparative of both). *-â-* is a midfix.


 
Would "nesbatan" or "taqriban" also be used in such a situation?  I understand that neither really have the same meaning as "more or less", though (as far as I can tell, "taqriban" means something like "almost" and "nesbatan" means something like "relatively").  I've never heard the phrase "kamâbish" . . . . interesting . . .


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## Mizhanah

norwegian:

mer eller mindre


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## mataripis

*Tagalog: Higit kumulang*


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