Talk about the weather
The universal opener, and in Japan more so.
Read across a row to watch one language climb its own ladder. Read down a column to see nine answers to the same problem. Every sentence is played by your device's voice for that language, where you have one.
| Language | Closefriends, family, people younger than you | Politecolleagues, strangers, shop staff — the safe default | Deferentialcustomers, clients, bosses, officials | What politeness does |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 日本語 | adds words | |||
| Français | rebuilt | |||
| Español | reworded | |||
| Deutsch | rebuilt | |||
| Italiano | reworded | |||
| Bahasa Melayu | reworded | |||
| ქართული | rebuilt | |||
| 普通话 | rebuilt | |||
| 廣東話 | rebuilt |
The last column asks whether the polite sentence still contains the casual one. Adds words means the original survives intact and politeness is bolted on the outside; rebuilt means the sentence was remade. Measured on the frames, so the filled-in word cannot skew it.
Click any sentence to see what it is doing.
Want these for a job or a place rather than one at a time? Circumstances builds a whole set from the situation you are in.