# "Shortcut phrases" in print in other languages (cf. English "dunno", "gimme") **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 23, 2014, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortcut-phrases-in-print-in-other-languages-cf-english-dunno-gimme/702253 "2014-10-23T14:57:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortcut-phrases-in-print-in-other-languages-cf-english-dunno-gimme/702253/1 "2014-10-23T14:57:48Z")
Often, in English-language prose, “shortcut phrases” are used to help depict realistic speech: – "_ **Gimme** a light."_ – “_ **Dunno** , officer … a lot of people come through here every night._” – "_ **Whaddaya** mean you lost him?!?"_ … I assume there are similar devices in many languages. What are some commonly-used examples in other Roman-alphabet languages? _Also:_ Are there similar kinds of devices for languages that don’t use the Roman alphabet? Arabic, Hindi, Thai, Korean, Japanese (kanji) etc? No reason there wouldn’t be, I reckon. How about languages with logographically-derived writing like Chinese? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortcut-phrases-in-print-in-other-languages-cf-english-dunno-gimme/702253/2 "2014-10-23T15:14:41Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > How about languages with logographically-derived writing like Chinese? I don’t know if this is actually \*written \*in Chinese or not, but people in northeast China (a region famed for unusual language mannerisms or ways of speaking) will often say _gansh’ar_ instead of \*ganshemeh \*(something that roughly translated to English means, “What?” or “What for?”) It shortens three syllables to two like the way ‘gimme’ shortens ‘give to me.’ But again, I don’t know if this can actually be \*written \*that way, and with each Chinese character usually representing one syllable, I suspect it can’t. ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortcut-phrases-in-print-in-other-languages-cf-english-dunno-gimme/702253/3 "2014-10-23T15:16:42Z")
[Joual french](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joual), spoken in Quebec, has some of these: “entéca” for _en tout cas_ (“anyway”), “bengadon” for _bien, regardes-donc_ (“well, look at that”), “asteur” for _à cette here_ (“right now”), “té” and “tsé” for _tu es_ and _tu sais_ (“you are” and “you know”), and so forth. Of course, these wouldn’t be written out this way in formal writing, just as “whaddaya” wouldn’t be written out that way in formal English writing either. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortcut-phrases-in-print-in-other-languages-cf-english-dunno-gimme/702253/4 "2014-10-23T15:38:49Z")
In Spanish, the preposition _para_ is often reduced to _pa’_ in speech (and written that way in informal writing), especially before a vowel. An example is the Pitbull song [_Echa Pa’lla (Manos Pa’rriba)_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echa_Pa'lla_(Manos_Pa'rriba)) (Go Away/Hands Up). ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortcut-phrases-in-print-in-other-languages-cf-english-dunno-gimme/702253/5 "2014-10-23T15:40:33Z")
In Spanish and as a general rule, written language does NOT try to reproduce speech patterns exactly. It can be done, but it’s not the norm and in fact it goes against the general norm; doing it for every bit of dialogue as it is the general usage in English would be considered overkill in most contexts. In an internet context or a comic book it would be more common, but in a novel, newspaper article etc. you spell “standard” even if the pronunciation is not. The words will be those the person would speak, the pronunciation will only be spelled out once or maybe twice in order to indicate the presence of an accent. So, an Argentinian character will use the _vos_ form of “you” rather than _tú_ or _usted_, different people will construct diminutives differently, but specific pronunciations will not be reflected. A few grammatical details plus word choice is considered to be enough to indicate which dialect people speak; trying to reflect pronunciation by back-transliteration would generally be considered both unnecesary and distracting, and this includes things such as “those 'd’s nobody pronounces”, words getting smooshed up, etc. Note that **Colibri** ’s example is a song: that is, it’s something that was written to be listened to, not read. In fact, the use of the apostrophe is an English influence: while nowadays lots of us are doing it, it’s a recent phenomenon. _Pallá_ and _parriba_ would be the more “normative” spellings. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortcut-phrases-in-print-in-other-languages-cf-english-dunno-gimme/702253/6 "2014-10-23T15:48:36Z")
If you ever try to write dialect, it can get pretty tricky: Two Ladies stood at a bus stop… First lady: " Fortify mince we bin stand’n year! Chews to be bad, butts pasta joke now" Second Lady “Feud dunce eye sedden walk’t ome, weed a bin thereboi now” Translation from Brizzle - The dialect still found In Bristol. England First Lady: "Fortyfive minutes we’ve been standing here. It used to be bad, but it is past a joke now! Second Lady: “If you had done as I’d said and walked home, we would have been there by now”. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortcut-phrases-in-print-in-other-languages-cf-english-dunno-gimme/702253/7 "2014-10-23T15:58:31Z")
Panamanian Spanish, like other varieties of “Caribbean” Spanish, has a tendency to drop letters such as the “d” in the ending _-ado_. This has become incorporated in the most common spelling of some place names, such as [_Playa Venao_](http://www.playavenaohotelresort.com/), whose actual name is _Playa Venado_ (Deer Beach). ---
**Author:** ![Not\_Carlson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bc79bd/32.png) [@Not\_Carlson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_Carlson)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortcut-phrases-in-print-in-other-languages-cf-english-dunno-gimme/702253/8 "2014-10-23T15:59:16Z")
Vernacular Japanese uses a lot of contractions when it comes to borrowed words. Eg., _pasokon_ for personal computer, _Konbini_ for convenience store, and my personal favorite, _amesho_ for American shorthair. But they also use a lot of grammatical shorthand in informal speech. A common example is saying \*“wakan’nai” \*(_dunno_) instead of _“wakaranai”_ (don’t know). These can all be shown in printed form, as they are contractions of the phonetic kana characters that accompany the kanji to form verb conjugations. The sneaky thing about Japanese language in print is that they often also use small-font \*kana \*alongside the \*kanji \*characters to provide the phonetic reading of the _kanji_. This is often played around with in comics, especially, to provide both the standard-language vocabulary (making the meaning clear) and a comic book character’s \*spoken \*language (slang, dialect, etc.). ---
**Author:** ![Not\_Carlson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bc79bd/32.png) [@Not\_Carlson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_Carlson)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortcut-phrases-in-print-in-other-languages-cf-english-dunno-gimme/702253/9 "2014-10-23T16:06:49Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > " Fortify mince we bin stand’n year! Chews to be bad, butts pasta joke > now" That was beautiful. Kind of reminds me of “[One on’t cross beams gone owt askew on treadle](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLDVIViWW74)”. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortcut-phrases-in-print-in-other-languages-cf-english-dunno-gimme/702253/10 "2014-10-23T16:10:32Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > If you ever try to write dialect, it can get pretty tricky: No doubt, no doubt. Loved your Brizzle example 😃 It’s rarely laid on that thick in English novels (though Dickens, et al, have taken it pretty far). … **Nava’s** last paragraph is imformative – I have seen that in both Spanish and Italian, some of these smushed-up phrases get a proper “non-apostrophized” spelling and get incorporated into (at least the informal register of) the language proper. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortcut-phrases-in-print-in-other-languages-cf-english-dunno-gimme/702253/11 "2014-10-23T16:12:44Z")
For German, a few contractions come to mind that are predominantly used in some North-German dialects: “Kannste” = “Kannst du” (“Can you”) “Willste” = “Willst du” (“Do you want”) “Siehste” = “Siehst du” (“Do you see”) and so on. But you rarely see them in print, at least not as often as the English examples in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortcut-phrases-in-print-in-other-languages-cf-english-dunno-gimme/702253/12 "2014-10-23T16:34:56Z")
It’s a pretty common way of forming words. In Welsh, _efallai_ “perhaps” is from _ef a allai_ “it could [be].” In speech this becomes _falle_. The French question word _est-ce que_ “is this that” is frequently just /esk/. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortcut-phrases-in-print-in-other-languages-cf-english-dunno-gimme/702253/13 "2014-10-23T16:48:17Z")
When Manuel in Faulty Towers says “Que.” Is that something a Spaniard would actually say if he didn’t understand? ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortcut-phrases-in-print-in-other-languages-cf-english-dunno-gimme/702253/14 "2014-10-23T17:02:58Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > The French question word _est-ce que_ “is this that” is frequently just /esk/. This case is kind of the opposite – a phrase shortened even in formal speech (right?) retains the long-obsolete spelling. Does it ever get rendered as something like "_esque … ?"_) in very informal French writing? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortcut-phrases-in-print-in-other-languages-cf-english-dunno-gimme/702253/15 "2014-10-23T17:08:38Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > This case is kind of the opposite – a phrase shortened even in formal speech (right?) retains the long-obsolete spelling. Does it ever get rendered as something like "_esque … ?"_) in very informal French writing? Google returns tons of hits for _Esqu’_ and a couple for _esque_. The latter is harder to search because “esque tu” brings back mostly Spanish, but there’s some “esque vous” results. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortcut-phrases-in-print-in-other-languages-cf-english-dunno-gimme/702253/16 "2014-10-23T17:45:12Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > If you ever try to write dialect, it can get pretty tricky:… One fairly obscure English-language writer who wrote _a lot_ of phonetic dialect works was the late 19th and early 20th century comedy writer Marietta Holley, I spoze. > [@Marietta Holley](#): > > … > CHAPTER THIRTEEN > > IN WHICH JOSIAH AND SERENUS DEPART SARAHUPTISHUSLY FOR CONEY ISLAND AND I START IN PURSUIT > > That afternoon I see Josiah and Serenus leanin’ on the barnyard fence talkin’ dretful earnest, I spozed about the Plan. But when I went to put my milk pans in the sun I hearn the same old story Coney Island! Dreamland! Luny! Bowery! etc., and I hurried into the house. When Josiah come in he sez, “I guess I’ll invite Serenus to go with me.” > > Sez I, “Why should you invite him to go to Shadow Island?” > > “Oh he’s got such good judgment,” sez he. > > I felt dubersome, but bein’ so mellered in sperit by his consentin’ to build the cottage I didn’t stand out. And they started the next mornin’ at sunrise for Shadow Island as I spozed. Till the next day but one Miss Gowdey come over to borry a drawin’ of tea and she sez, > > “Serenus and Josiah are havin’ a gay time at 214 Coney Island. I’ve jest had a card from Serenus.” > > You could have knocked me down with a pin feather. But so powerful is my mind, though it seemed to roll to and fro under my foretop and my knees wobbled under me, I did up the tea with marble composure and a piece of paper, and she sot off with it, and then I fell into a rockin’ chair with almost frenzied forebodin’s. What! what wuz Josiah Allen doin’ in that place of folly and fashion? Could he keep his innocence amidst the awful temptations? I’d hearn there wuz places there where folks stood on their heads; wuz his brain strong enough to stand the jolt? > > Spozein’ them iron horses should kick him over? Spozein’ he got wrecked on the Immoral railway? Or went up on the Awful Tower and fell off? Spozein’ the elephants should tread on him? Or the boyconstructors or tigers git after him? Or he should go to the moon and git lost there and be obleeged to stay? Oh the wild fears that raced through my foretop; mebby they wuzn’t reasonable but they gored me jest the same. What must I, what could I do? I couldn’t tell. > … ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortcut-phrases-in-print-in-other-languages-cf-english-dunno-gimme/702253/17 "2014-10-23T18:51:45Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > When Manuel in Faulty Towers says “Que.” Is that something a Spaniard would actually say if he didn’t understand? Yes, although it’s pretty impolite. It just means “what?”, the usage and its connotations are the same. Saying “¿qué?” is akin to “what?”; saying “¿mande lo qué?” (or, worse, “¿mande lo quéeeeee?”), which I have no idea how to translate, is along the lines of “someone tell me that what I thought I understood is not what was said”; saying “¿disculpe?” or “¿perdón?” would be “excuse me?” both in a literal and connotations sense. > [@Colibri](#): > > Panamanian Spanish, like other varieties of “Caribbean” Spanish, has a tendency to drop letters such as the “d” in the ending _-ado_. Like about every dialect, except when the speaker is giving a speech or dictating. That’s the “d nobody pronounces” I was referring to. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortcut-phrases-in-print-in-other-languages-cf-english-dunno-gimme/702253/18 "2014-10-23T19:51:38Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Like about every dialect, except when the speaker is giving a speech or dictating. That’s the “d nobody pronounces” I was referring to. Do speakers of other dialects frequently spell words without the “d”? Because this is something I have seen not only in Panama but also in Cuba and Puerto Rico in casual writing. (I’m not speaking of printed writing, but hand-written notes, signs, and graffiti). I can’t recall seeing words written this way in other Spanish-speaking countries. This dropping of the “d” I understand to be one of the characteristics of [Caribbean Spanish](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean_Spanish), although it may be present in other dialects. If you may forgive citing Wiki: > [@](#): > > Intervocalic /d/ is often deleted (at times causing diphthongs): cansado /kanˈsau/ (‘tired’), nada /na/ (‘nothing’), and perdido /perˈdio/ (‘lost’). ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortcut-phrases-in-print-in-other-languages-cf-english-dunno-gimme/702253/19 "2014-10-23T20:01:38Z")
In spoken Swedish, you’ll hear lots of _ja’ba’_ (“I said / did”), _hanba’_ (“he said / did”), _honba’_ (“she said / did”), etc. The Danes, meanwhile, end every goddamn sentence with _ik’?_, which is short for _ikke?_, an all-purpose negation similar to the British “innit?” ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortcut-phrases-in-print-in-other-languages-cf-english-dunno-gimme/702253/20 "2014-10-23T20:36:08Z")
An example from Hebrew: ?מה העיניינים meaning “What’s up?” or “What’s going on?” Literally, “What [are] the matters?” Strict pronunciation would be “Mah ha-inyanim?” (all the vowels pronounced about like in Spanish). Colloquial pronunciation is more like “Manyanim?” I think there are a lot of common Hebrew phases that would be shortened like that. I don’t know if this would be abbreviated in written text – I’m guessing not. ETA: Reference: [Hebrew phasebook](http://wikitravel.org/en/Hebrew_phrasebook) from Wikitravel. (Doesn’t show the abbreviated pronunciations, but does show the spelling and translations for lots of phrases.) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shortcut-phrases-in-print-in-other-languages-cf-english-dunno-gimme/702253.md?page=2)