# How much do I owe you? We're quits.



## Encolpius

- How much do I owe you?
- We're *quits*.

I was surprised I found the word *quits* in more languages. The origine is French and also realized Spanish e.g. doesn't use it. Does you native language also use that word and how do you translate the sentence? 

Hungarian: Mennyivel tartozom? *Kvittek* vagyunk. 
Czech: Kolik jsem dlužen? Jsme si *kvit*.
Portuguese: Quanto lhe devo? Estamos *quites*. 
French: Je te dois combien? On est *quittes*.
German: Wieviel schulde ich dir? Wir sind *quitt*.


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## Arrius

What the Spaniards say is  _estamos en paz_ (literally _we are at peace = neither owes the other anything_), though they do have the verb quitar = to take something off, such a hat.
Both Americans and British say _We're quits,_ but as for the verb to _quit,_ an Englishman is far more likely to say _I gave up_ (e.g. smoking) or _I am leaving my job,_ where an American will say _I quit smoking_ and _I am quitting_ (my job).  In French _quitter _means to leave/depart and _we are quits_ is _nous sommes quittes,_ from which, as you say, the English expression derives.  They have a cognate in  Afrikaans too:
_Nou is ons kiets_ (_Now we are quits_).


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## sokol

Encolpius said:


> German: Wieviel schulde ich dir? Wir sind *quitt*.



Yes, correct again, but more idiomatic - at least in Austria (standard language) - it would be to rephrase the first sentence like that:
- Was bin ich schuldig?
- Wir sind *quitt.
*(I guess you mean the first one is the question to which the second one is a typical answer, right?)
But probably in Germany (in some regions at least) a different version would be more idiomatic as the one mentioned above would be a word-by-word translation from Austrian dialect:
- Wos bin i schuidig?
- Mia san quitt.

And yes, I know that "wieviel" would ask after something countable (like Slavic "koliko"); nevertheless what is more idiomatic here would be simple "was" = "what".

In *Slovenian *"quit" translates as "bot"; however I don't dare translate into Slovenian, surely I would get it wrong somehow ... (well ... could be something like - using the >first-name terms version< = equivalent of German _Duzen:_ "Koliko sem dolžan? - Sem bot s teboj." - and native speakers please correct if necessary, right?)


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## Encolpius

Thank you Sokol. Your idiom sounds more realistic and both in Czech and Hunagrian we can use *what* and not *how much*. 
Co jsem dlužen?
Mivel tartozom?
Maybe English also can say: 
What do I owe you? 
It must be the same like: 
How much does it cost?
What does it cost?


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## Orreaga

Arrius said:


> Both Americans and British say _We're quits_


I've never heard this expression and had no idea what it meant even given the context.  

In the U.S. the most usual responses to the question, "How much do I owe you?" (if the answer is $0), are "Nothing", "We're even" (assuming there was an even exchange of goods or services), or increasingly, "We're good."


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## Encolpius

Maybe it's only a British expression.


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## Arrius

*I've never heard this expression and had no idea what it meant even given the context.* *Orreaga*

Perhaps it is used in some parts of the States farther north than where you are, or in Canada. In the American dictionaries I have consulted that list it, and all do so, there is no mention of it being only or mainly a British expression, which they usually take the trouble to point out. Since its origin in English is as early as 1663, according to the Online Etymological Dictionary, there must have been a lot of Englishmen still emigrating to North America who used the term. I wonder what you say for "*double or quits*" when someone makes a bet to cancel a debt he owes if he wins, or pay double if he loses. (Probably, _double or nothing_).
An interesting thing I discovered whilst going into this matter (at least. interesting to me) is that both the French _quittes_ and the English _quits _come directly from Latin *quietus* (quiet/calm), and that the the words_ quiet_ and _quite_, so often confused by schoolchildren in particular, and, as already stated, _quit(s)_ are actually all derivatives of _quietus_ and semantically loosely connected, as well. The connecting idea is that if you settle an account by removing (_quit_) the whole (_quite_) of a debt you calm or satisfy (_quiet_) the creditor. 
Hamlet refers to suicide, the final settling of accounts, as "_When he himself might his *quietus *make With a bare bodkin?", (_a bare bodkin being a sharp and slender dagger or a tool for piercing).


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## Orreaga

Arrius said:


> Perhaps it is used in some parts of the States farther north than where you are, or in Canada. In the American dictionaries I have consulted that list it, and all do so, there is no mention of it being only or mainly a British expression, which they usually take the trouble to point out. Since its origin in English is as early as 1663, according to the Online Etymological Dictionary, there must have been a lot of Englishmen still emigrating to North America who used the term. I wonder what you say for "*double or quits*" when someone makes a bet to cancel a debt he owes if he wins, or pay double if he loses. (Probably, _double or nothing_).


I grew up in New York and have lived in New England but never heard it, my grandparents had English roots but I never heard them use it (but maybe the occasion never presented itself). And I don't believe I've ever heard it on American television or in film.  I also found it in an American dictionary but it must be rare.  We do say _double or nothing_.  I'd like to hear from someone in the U.S. who claims to use _quits_.  I've asked a friend from the Midwest who says he also is unfamiliar with it.  (I may be drifting into the "English only" forum now...)


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## Arrius

*(I may be drifting into the "English only" forum now...)* *Orreaga*
The moderator is, of course, the final arbiter on that, but the original question was 
*Does your native language also use that word ?*, so I think a not overlong attempt to establish whether *quits *is used at all in North America is quite legitimate. Besides, there is plenty of room for it on this thread as there can't be all that many languages that use this lexeme or its cognates, and we have already listed seven of them. I admit that I have never heard an American in a movie or real life say this either, but, as has already been pointed out, there is seldom occasion to do so, and you do have the synonymous phrase, "We're even".
Here are two more languages that definitely use the thread term:
Dutch: *Wij zijn kwijt* (We are quits).
Norwegian: *Vi er kvitt*,    ,,   .


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## Encolpius

Arrius said:


> I admit that I have never heard an American in a movie or real life say this either, but, as has already been pointed out, there is seldom occasion to do so, and you do have the synonymous phrase, "We're even".


 
Watch The Godfather again. But the funny thing is the characters in that film are kind of more Italian & they use that idiom even though we can't find that expression in Italian. 

*Don Corleone*: _[to the Heads of the Five Families]_ How did things ever get so far? I don't know. It was so unfortunate, so unnecessary. Tattaglia lost a son and I lost a son. *We're quits.* And if Tattaglia agrees, then I'm willing to let things go on the way they were before.


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## Arrius

Very interesting, *Encolpius*, but, alas, although I have got all three parts of this excellent saga, they are on VHS tapes in Spanish, hence with no alternative dialogue, apart from the Italian and Sicilian bits from the English original. In Spanish, I recall he says to Tattaglia "Estamos en paz" (= _we are at peace_ = _we're quits_). 
Inasmuch as one can use a work of fiction as evidence of usage, one could make the points here that neither Don Corleone nor Mario Puzo nor the director nor screenwriters were under the influence of British usage, secondly that the Italians say, inter alia,  _*siamo pari*_ for this idea and do not use any form of the word _quits,_ so it wasn't Italian influence either.
Sometimes American film producers put into the mouths of British characters, that they often like to have as villains, American idioms that no Brit would ever say, except after a long stay in the States, but I have never known them to do the opposite.


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## Orreaga

Encolpius said:


> Watch The Godfather again. But the funny thing is the characters in that film are kind of more Italian & they use that idiom even though we can't find that expression in Italian.


Istenem!  How did you put your finger on this one, Encolpius??  I must admit once again I'm outdone by foreign audiences regarding American film.  I cannot see _The Godfather_ "again" because I haven't seen it for the first time.    It's quite possible the term "quits" is used in certain segments of society to which I've had less exposure.


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## Encolpius

Orreaga said:


> It's quite possible the term "quits" is used in certain segments of society to which I've had less exposure.


 
You mean the gangsters? 
Actually in my native language *We're quits* refers not only to the money, but any other things like revenge too. And I can't remember if I did use that expression in my native language either but I know it well. 

But it seems the expression *to call it quits* is a lot more common. So maybe other members will recognize quits in that expression. Just to mention another less famous film:
- I believe I am deeply in your debt for saving my daughter's life. 
- Buy me a cold beer and *we'll call it quits*.


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## OldAvatar

Romanian has it too.

_Suntem chit._


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## Orreaga

Encolpius said:


> But it seems the expression *to call it quits* is a lot more common. So maybe other members will recognize quits in that expression. Just to mention another less famous film:
> - I believe I am deeply in your debt for saving my daughter's life.
> - Buy me a cold beer and *we'll call it quits*.


This to me is a very common and familiar expression that I use personally, only to mean something different.  The way I use it and the way I hear it used is simply as another way of saying "we'll quit", "we're finished" with whatever it is we're doing. To me it has no connotation of compensation or canceling debt.

Another way of using "quit" recently surfaced in the film _Brokeback Mountain_, when Ennis said to Jack, "I wish I could quit you."  This is a "folk" locution, a usage from rural America, perhaps, with which many listeners were unfamiliar, but which gained popularity after the film and is used in a humorous way. In the film, however, it was used in a serious way to mean "I wish I could leave you."


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## Arrius

I have had no opportunity to see this film yet, but since tough cowboys are thought generally to frown on "the love that dare not speak its name" (Oscar Wilde), perhaps Ennis was talking about giving up his intimate relationship with Jack, as one gives up a bad habit like smoking, and was using the term in the same way. Admittedly, that would involve your meaning too.


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## Encolpius

another interesting thing
*etymology*
Amer. English quits "even" (with another) is from 1663
while the Hungarian kvitt is from 1828
So I think the English quits is a very old word. 

And once again, *to quit* & *quits* have nothing to do with each other!


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## Arrius

*And once again, to quit & quits have nothing to do with each other!  Encolpius*

You will see from the links below that _quit, quits, quite,_ and even _quiet_ share the same root, and I have already explained the connection at Post#7.
In this etymological dictionary there is no separate article on_ quits_ - _it is listed under quit!_ Note the cross-references in the articles.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=quits&searchmode=none

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=quite&searchmode=none

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=quiet&searchmode=none


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## Encolpius

It seems you are right.


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## merse0

How much do I owe you?
We are quits.
In Italian I wouls say:
Quanto ti devo?
Siamo pari (or, more colloquial: va bene così).

The Corleone sentence can be translated:
Siamo pari OR pari e patta


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## Orreaga

Encolpius said:


> And once again, *to quit* & *quits* have nothing to do with each other!


It would seem that in some places a semantic change is taking place such that *quits *is losing it's earlier meaning and merging with *to quit*.


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## Encolpius

Altogether it seems many languages use quits & many languages do not. 
But a lot more than I expected. 


PS: It seems Polish use it too. 

Jesteśmy kwita. (we're quits)


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## Lieven

Arrius said:


> *(I may
> Dutch: Wij zijn kwijt (We are quits).*


*

Kwijt means "lost" in dutch. 

I lost my wallet = ik ben mijn portemonee kwijt.

We do say "we staan quitte", which means we're quits

Off topic: I wouldn't be surprised if kwijt is a cognate of english quit.*


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## saraparker

Hi everybody,

I am from Mexico, and we do not have that word, we say Estamos a mano...it means the same but with other words!


Sara


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