European Phrase Book

The most essential phrases in various European languages.

If you're travelling in Europe then save yourself the hassle of language courses: everything you need is in the table below. Remember: the more obscure the language you learn, and the more widespread your own native tongue, the more brownie points you get  WHY? .

The most important phrases

Imagine: you are in a bar, so you say Hi, a beer please to the waiter or barman. You drink the beer, life is good. Someone else buys you a drink, so you say thanks and they say you're welcome. You both say cheers and drink more beer.

Bosnian	4	ćao	pivo	molim	hvala	nema na čemu	źivjeli!
Bulgarian	9	Здрасти	Бира	-	благодаря	Моля	Наздраве!
Catalan	9	hola	una cervesa	si us plau	mercés	de res	salut
Cornish	0	Deth da	coref	mar plek	mur ras
Croatian	5	bok	pivo	molim	hvala	molim	zivili!
Czech	11	ahoj	pivo	prosím	díky	není zač	na zdraví
Danish	5	hej	en øl	tak	mange tak	velbekomme	skål!
Dutch	21	hoi	een bier	alsjeblieft	bedankt	graag gedaan	proost!
English	470	hi	a beer	please	thank you	you're welcome	cheers!
Finnish	6	moi	olut	kiitos	kiitos	ole hyvä	kippis!
French	124	salut	une bière	s'il vous plaît	merci	je vous en prie	santé!
Galician	4	ola	una cervexa	por favor	grácias	de nada	saúde!
German	121	guten tag	ein Bier	bitte	danke	bitte sehr	prost!
Greek	12	γεια σου	μια μπιρα	παρα καλω	ευχαριστω	παρα καλω	στην γεια σου!
Hungarian	14	szia	egy sört	kérek	köszi	szivesen	egeszsegedre!
Irish	1	Dia duit	Beoir	le do thoil	go raibh maith agat	tá fáilte romhat	sláinte!
Italian	62	ciao	una birra	per favore	grazie	prego	chin chin!
Lithuanian	3	làbas	alus	prašau	ačiû	prašau	I sveikatą!
Luxemb.	0.4	moien	ee béier	wanechgelift	merci	wanechgelift	prost!
Norwegian	5	hei	en halvliter	-	takk	versågod	skål!
Polish	44	cześć	jedno pivo	prosze	dziçki	-	na zdrowie!
Portuguese	182	olá	cerveja	por favor	obrigado	de nada	saúde
Spanish	381	hola	una cerveza	por favor	gracias	de nada	salud!
Swedish	9	hej	en öl	tack	tack så mycket	var så god	skål!
Turkish	59	merhaba	bir bira	lütfen	tesekkürler	bïr sey degil

Working out the correct pronunciation is left as an exercise for the reader, with the Greek and Irish phrases being the most challenging.

Note that if you are in a proper pub, then asking for 'a beer' is not nearly specific enough. Please try all of the locally-brewed beers, learn their names and pronunciations, and send these to us by e-mail, along with tasting notes.

It turns out to be useful to carry these around, but my PDA cannot display most of the accented letters. Instead I made a version of the PDA screen format phrase book and used that to make 320x320 pixel images (ZIP, 180 Kb). There is also a newer mobile phone screen format phrase book, used to make 240x240 pixel images (ZIP, 192 Kb).

I've been trying to get all the accented characters right in Unicode, so please let me know if any the accents are wrong or missing in your language. The numbers in the table's second column are the numbers of speakers, in millions (source).

Country-specific phrases

There are some phrases that only apply to a certain country or nationality:

• In the United Kingdom and Ireland 'Whose round is it?' is appropriate, because we buy rounds of drinks for each other in pubs.
• In Sweden you can usually have a free coffee refill so you need to know how to ask kan jag få en påtår tack?.
• In France you can ask où se trouve la section non-fumeurs, s'il vous plaît?, because restaurants are now legally obliged to set aside a proportion of seating for non-smokers.
• If you meet any Italians anywhere further north than Italy they will probably agree with you if you say Che freddo!, because it will always be too cold.

Peculiarities

For obscure linguistic reasons, some of the phrases don't translate easily into some lanugages:

• Irish and Cornish do not have single words for 'yes' and 'no'; you have to use a statement that includes a negated verb
• in Finnish you can say hölökyn kölökyn instead of 'cheers', despite it not meaning anything more than 'bla bla bla'.
• in Norwegian it is less polite to use the word for 'please' (takk) when asking for something; you should use a construction like 'may I...' instead.

Historical note: the antique European phrase book

A while ago I was looking through my grandmother's attic and found an old dusty copy of The Automobile Association Conversation Handbook for Tourists, published by l'Alliance Internationale de Tourisme, Genève. This old-fashioned phrasebook has the most bizarrely anglocentric phrases (I didn't make them up, so don't send me corrections), typified by the following.

• English. I would like to visit a tea-room.
• French. Je voudrais visiter un salon de thé.
• Dutch. Ik wil een theeschenkerij bezoeken.
• German. Ich möchte eine 'Teestube' besuchen.
• Italian. Io vorrei visitare in una sala da tè.
• Spanish. Quisiera visitar un salón de té.
• Swedish. Jag skulle vilja besöka ett te-rum.
• Portuguese. Eu queria visitar ao salão de chá.

Of course, if you're English and visting Continental friends, then you have an obligation to perpetuate certain stereotypes that are prevalent in Continental Europe, so these phrases might turn out to be useful after all.