# All Slavic languages: Please - used for surprise



## Encolpius

Hello, I was not able to find the proper answer even in a big Czech dictionary....is there any idiom/conjunction with the word "please" in your mother tongue used for surprise? Here is a concrete English sentence, a context: She was always afraid of dying of breast cancer...<any idiom with please??>... she died of leukaemia. 
Thanks.
(I mean verbs: prosit, просить, moliti in Southern Slavic languages)


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## rusita preciosa

I can't think of any such expression in Russian. 

There is the expression я тебя умоляю! (I'm begging you!) , but it s an expression of skepticism, rather than surprise.


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## iezik

In Slovene, the following dialog shows unbelief from the mother against the child of 6 years:

Child:_ Mi lahko daš tisoč evrov?_ Can you give me thousand euro?
Mother: _Kako, prosim?_ I beg your pardon?

For a mother it can be hard to imagine that such a child even knows so high numbers or she could be surprised that a child saw an ad for something.


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## marco_2

Hello Encolpius, I'm not sure if I understood your question properly, but here's what came to my mind:

- Myślałem, że już nigdy go nie zobaczę, *a tu proszę: *wczoraj po kolacji znów mnie odwiedził.
(= I thought I'd never see him again, but, *surprisingly, *he dropped in on me yesterday after supper.)

The context of this situation is similar to yours, but if you meant just pure surprise, we also can express it with the word *proszę*, e.g.

- Postanowiłem ożenić się z twoją siostrą.  - *Proszę?!! / Co proszę?!! *(= I decided to marry your sister. - What?!!)


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## DarkChild

So you mean as in "what?!"?

In Bulgarian we say Моля? That's used as "I beg your pardon" when you want something to be repeated. It is also used to express surprise or shock. It also means "please". Literally, of course, it means to "ask" (for a favor) or "beg".


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## Encolpius

marco_2 said:


> Hello Encolpius, I'm not sure if I understood your question properly, but here's what came to my mind:
> 
> - Myślałem, że już nigdy go nie zobaczę, *a tu proszę: *wczoraj po kolacji znów mnie odwiedził.
> (= I thought I'd never see him again, but, *surprisingly, *he dropped in on me yesterday after supper.)



Marco, your example is fantastic. That's what I have been looking for...Now I am afraid it exists only in West Slavic languages....


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## igusarov

Encolpius said:


> She was always afraid of dying of breast cancer...<any idiom with please??>... she died of leukaemia.


Russian:
"Она всё боялась умереть от рака груди, и тут *на тебе, пожалуйста* - умерла от лейкимии." =~ "... lo and behold: she died of ...", ""
"*Скажите пожалуйста*, какая ирония судьбы!" = "Well, I never... what a dark irony!"
"*Скажи на милость!* А я думал, что она жива-живёхонька" =~ "Don't tell! I thought she's well and kicking!"

Edit:
"на тебе, пожалуйста" should be pronounced with a strong stress on "на" and almost no stress on "тебе". Almost as if it was a single word "нАтебе"... In fact, sometimes this phrase is used in what I believe is its short form: "нате пожалуйста".


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## Panceltic

iezik said:


> In Slovene, the following dialog shows unbelief from the mother against the child of 6 years:
> 
> Child:_ Mi lahko daš tisoč evrov?_ Can you give me thousand euro?
> Mother: _Kako, prosim?_ I beg your pardon?
> 
> For a mother it can be hard to imagine that such a child even knows so high numbers or she could be surprised that a child saw an ad for something.



People also say _prosim lepo_ (lit. "I ask nicely") at the end of a sentence if they want to indicate to the other person that something uncommon/outrageous has happened.

For example: _Avtobus vedno vozi na 10 minut. Danes pa sem ga čakal pol ure, *prosim lepo*!_ (The bus always comes every 10 minutes, but today I've been waiting for 30 minutes, *can you believe that*).

Also the word order is strange, in other situations one says _lepo prosim_.


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## DarkChild

Encolpius said:


> Marco, your example is fantastic. That's what I have been looking for...Now I am afraid it exists only in West Slavic languages....



Oh, now I see what you mean. We have that in Bulgarian

We say моля ти/ви се (molya ti/vi se) in this case.


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## Encolpius

igusarov said:


> Russian:
> "Она всё боялась умереть от рака груди, и тут *на тебе, пожалуйста* - умерла от лейкимии." =~ "... lo and behold: she died of ...", ""



Very interesting. Is it possible to say "и тут на вас, пожалуйста..."??? 




DarkChild said:


> Oh, now I see what you mean. We have that in Bulgarian
> 
> We say моля ти/ви се (molya ti/vi se) in this case.



Would you please write a short concrete sentence, so I am sure....thanks


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## igusarov

Encolpius said:


> Very interesting. Is it possible to say "и тут на вас, пожалуйста..."???


No. You must say "на тебе, пожалуйста" even if addressing many people. However, you can say "*нате вам, пожалуйста*":


			
				Mark Twain said:
			
		

> "Tom, I've a notion to skin you alive!"
> "Auntie, what have I done?"
> "Well, you've done enough. Here I go over to Sereny Harper, like an old       softy, expecting I'm going to make her believe all that rubbage about that       dream, *when lo and behold you* she'd found out from Joe that you was over       here and heard all the talk we had that night.
> ----------
> — Том, выдрать бы тебя как следует!
> — Тетечка, что же я такого сделал?
> — Да уж наделал довольно! А я-то, старая дура, бегу к Сирини Гарпер, — думаю, сейчас она поверит в этот твой дурацкий сон. *И нате вам, пожалуйста!* Она, оказывается, узнала у Джо, что ты здесь был в тот вечер и слышал все наши разговоры.


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## DarkChild

Encolpius said:


> Very interesting. Is it possible to say "и тут на вас, пожалуйста..."???
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Would you please write a short concrete sentence, so I am sure....thanks



Каза, че уж отива за хляб, а се върна, моля ти се, чак в полунощ.


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## marco_2

In Polish you can use the expression *proszę cię *when you want to make someone stop doing or talking something. Let's say a bit tipsy man talks rubbish at the party and his wife may say: *Franek, proszę cię! *_(Frank, that's enough / stop it!)_


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## Thomas1

There's also "_no proszę cię_" used for various purposes in colloquial language. It usually expresses a negative reaction to something, for instance disbelief, surprise, disagreement:Nie, no proszę Cię! Dziewczyna ma 19 lat i  ma się rozglądać za  chirurgiem plastycznym? Zbierać pieniądze!!?? Co to za koncepcja, bo nie  rozumiem w czym to miałoby pomóc?
Post as of 13.02.2008 14:42:00        
http://www.psychiatria.pl/forum/zab...hiatria.pl/forum/zabic-sie/watek/46314/6.html​
You can type "no proszę cię" into Google to see its distribution.


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## Maroseika

igusarov said:


> Russian:
> "Она всё боялась умереть от рака груди, и тут *на тебе, пожалуйста* - умерла от лейкимии."



One more (colloquial) Russian variant: здравствуйте пожалуйста (здрасти пожалуйста):
Она всегда боялась умереть от рака груди, и,* здрасти пожалуйста,* умерла от белокровия.


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## Encolpius

Thanks. Very fascinating idiom, Maroseika!


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## Sobakus

I'd like to add that the Russian *на* is an interjection meaning "here you go", and that *здрасте пожалуйста* is likely a combination of *здрасте приехали*_ (get out of here!)_ and the aforementioned idiom.


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## glupson

Encolpius said:


> Marco, your example is fantastic. That's what I have been looking for...Now I am afraid it exists only in West Slavic languages....



It was diffucult to understand your question, but this example helps!

In BSC, we use "molim te" in this way:

She was always afraid of dying of breast cancer...<any idiom with please??>... she died of leukaemia.
Uvijek se bojala da ce umrijeti od raka dojke,* i molim te*, umre od leukemije. ("umrla je" in a different verb tense)

The idiom in its complete form is "*i molim te zamisli*" which means literally "*and please imagine *this" which explanes the origin of the idiom.
Example: I molim te zamisli, on mene krivi za svoj neuspjeh. Please imagine this, he blames me for his own fail.


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## Encolpius

Thanks glupson for the answer that's what I've been looking for...and the explanation of its origin is very interesting...
Yes, the question looks difficult but after reading some Slavic examples you just need to check it if it works in your language, too...
It must be a phrase you see in all Slavic languages....


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