One thing to say, nine ways to say it
Pick something you want to do with language. Every one of these shows you how 15 languages do it, said to a friend, to a stranger and to a client.
The vocabulary tables compare words. This compares what a language does to a whole sentence when you have to be polite — and the answers are wildly different. German rebuilds the word order, Georgian adds one suffix, Cantonese changes nothing at all and wraps the sentence in other words instead.
Languages here: 日本語, Français, Español, Deutsch, Italiano, Bahasa Melayu, Português, Русский, हिन्दी, ქართული, 普通话, 廣東話, Tiếng Việt, 한국어, Türkçe.
Getting by
Greet
Open the conversation.
Leave
Close it and get out.
Thank
Acknowledge something done for you.
Apologise
The most-used move in Japanese, by a distance.
Get attention
Make someone turn round before you ask anything.
Ask for a repeat
The single most useful sentence when you are out of your depth.
Ask what a word means
Turn any unknown word into a lesson.
Say you don't follow
Better than nodding.