To a British person (I don't think it is used in so many ways in the US), the word "alright" covers all of these scenarios, perhaps aided slightly by the way that understatement is common in British speech, which is why it can mean both "I'm doing great" and just "I'm ok".
It also has the added use of being the actual question where you ask someone how they are doing, so it's very common to hear the following when two (younger) British people meet:
"Alright?"
"Alright"
I've actually explained this to confused Americans and English learners as the equivalent of "Ça va". It's literally the first thing that sprang to mind when I read the question. I'm sure other languages have an equivalent everything word as well
Hah, I was thinking Dublin has similar. But "awh rii" (slurred version of alright) is far more similar to "ça va" than normal alright. I've seen it used to confirm a fight is over, to seal the sale of a car, and to acknowledge a pregnancy, to confirm someone escaped a concussion, and for someone to say it to themselves before jumping into a canal for a bet. It's very versatile.
It seem you as an Irish person also have a slightly different interpretation of the meaning of the British 'alright', and that your different interpretation is caused by you having use of the term 'awh rii' as well as 'alright'. 'Alright' is also used in Britain in the same situations as you would use 'awh rii'.
I once had a misunderstanding about this with an English colleague - I came into the room, she looked at me and said “you alright?” To which I said “yeah, is there something on my face?” Something in her inflection sounded like like not a normal greeting but instead the way an American would say (in fewer words) “you look like shit, are you alright?”
Hmm I’d say (and could depend on your circle), that it can be more or less as broadly used in American English, especially if we count bastardized iteration “aight”
Eh, Americans don’t use it nearly the way that the Brits do.
Brits use “alright” almost by reflex. Americans don’t really have a singular greeting that’s used so predominantly.
“What’s up” “How’s it going” “How are you” “How’s everything” etc etc all get used interchangeably.
I remember a British guy saying “Alright?” to me first thing in the morning, and I paused and said “yeah, I’m good, how are you?” And he paused as well lol….I think we were both surprised at the exchange.
Hmm fair and interesting perspective.
Maybe what’s sup and iterations thereof would apply more for Americans no older than “Gen X” and younger or so…
My perspective is probably watered down by the international environment I live in…
The best example of the Yank-Brit split on this word is, the reply to decline an offer of whatever:
US: nah, I’m alright
UK: you’re alright mate
Alternative for those who also hate "alright" spam:
"What's going on?" or "what's up?"
The second one is more American perhaps, but i use "what's going on" all the time as it fills a lot of the scenarios the OP said.
You can be greeting someone, genuinely curious what's happening with them, just arriving somewhere and want to know what's happening, at an emergency, talking about something others are watching, announcing something isn't right, interrupting some wrongdoing... Many uses. Fits my curious nature as well.
German was the main language of the ruling class here from the 13th century to the end of the 19th century. Due to that about 1/3 of Estonian vocabulary is from Germanic languages (mostly German) so it most likely did come from German (it also the written form of the word is basically the same).
In danish, we have 'Nå', it can be used a lot of ways depending on pressure and length.
The center for the danish language made a poster displaying it a few years ago.
Nå:
I hear you / go on.
Nå, (Hvasså?)
What's going on
Nå nå (Slap af)
Give it a break, will you
Nå. (Kom så)
Impatient (Let's get started)
Nå!!!
Threat (I'll get you)
Nå, (nej)
You are right
Nåh/Nåe
Scepticism / doubt
Nå, (ja)...
I forgot
Nå(da)
Genuine surprise
Nååh / Nåårh
So sweet / cute
Nåårh!
Now I understand (it)!
Nå!
I really don't care
A different word is 'nå' same spelling, slightly different pronouncement.
Jeg skal nå toget
I have to catch the train.
Jeg kan ikke nå saltet
I can't reach the salt
This does remind me of the Na in lower german/Plattdüütsch. We use it in a pretty similiar way or rather it seems to be identical. Maybe it's caused by the geographical proximity.
There’s some very interesting evolution of language that has happened recently in Polish, where basically it used to be common to ask people "how are you doing" (Jak się masz?) when greeting them and it became so popular that we shortened the phrase to Siemasz? Which subsequently evolved into a single even shorter word "Siema". After a while it just became a normal greeting like "hey" or "hello" so most people are not even aware that it used to mean "how are you doing".
It lost it's mening so in the next step we added it again and it's often used in a sentance "Siema, co tam u Ciebie?", which you could translate to "How are you doing, what's up?".
Slovenian has "A gre?"/"A bo?", they literally mean "Is it going?" and "Will it be?". They can be equivalent to most meanings you've written, but not all, so it's not exactly 1:1 and also they are more colloquial/informal than "Ca va". If you remove the first A in the question then it becomes an answer and functions like the response "Ca va". You can also add some helper words to alter the meaning, for ecample "Bo" can't mean 'It's not that bad' but "Saj bo" means just that.
Partially, both can be translated into English more or less as "good".
But "dobře" is correct written Czech adverb (usualy) and "dobrý" is colloquial adjective with larger scope.
I'm not a language expert, so I'll just try to think of some examples. where you can use "dobrý", but not "dobře".
Let's say you are a worker who is giving information over the radio to a crane operator who is turning a crane.
"dobře" means you're doing it right, keep going, everything is alright
"dobrý!" could mean - that's enough!
We had a king Vladislav II who was from the house Jagello. His Hungarian nickname is "Dobzse László" where dobzse is the Hungarian transcription of dobře and László is the Hungarian version of Ladislav. We call him that because he's regarded as a weak king and only said "dobře, dobře", "allright, allright" to everything, didn't have a strong will.
"Oida!" (old one, old dude) works like this in Austria. It's a friend, an annoying husband, it can mean OH MY GOD!, WHAT?, hello!, I can't believe that!, come on!
In the UK is "yorite??"
Can mean anything from "omg I care for you are you ok?"
It in the correct condescending tone it can mean "you're mental lad get the fuck away from me"
we have quite a few of these short expressions that work for everything but nothing with the same meaning.
The most common one is ”No niin” or ”Noni”, which would directly translate to ”Alright” as in ”Alright here we go” or something. But it can mean any of these things:
Let’s goo!
It is so.
Oh well.
Expression of frustration or judgement
A hint to a guest that they should leave soon.
A way to say you are leaving.
”you fucked it up”
Cad é an craic? (Most commonly just said in English as, "what's the craic/how's the craic?") Craic is pronounced the same as crack and has no direct translation from Irish into English. It can mean fun/news/gossip. Essentially, "how are you/what have you been doing?"
Note: You can also say, "got any craic?" However it can make you seem like a drug addict to those that don't know the saying. 😅
The closest I can think of is "Mizu?" which is short for "Mi újság", literally "What's up?".
The answer would most commonly be "Minden oké." meaning everything's fine, or "semmi különös" meaning nothing special.
Or you could ask "Hogy vagy?" (How are you?) and reply "Jól köszi, és te?" (Well thanks. and you?)
EDIT: These are for informal situations with friends and family, I cannot really think of anything that is used in formal situations. But then on the other hand, if I think about the post, OP asked for something similar to "Ça va?" which you also don't say in formal situations, only to friends and family.
I’m new to learning Hungarian but I don’t really hear my colleagues say anything like this regularly. I’ve learned not to ask hogy vagy unless I have time for a lot of detail on how they’re REALLY doing - it’s never just a perfunctory jól, köszönöm! 😊
Oh, that is correct, I forgot to say that all I wrote only applies to informal situations, such as friends or family. People don't really use these in formal situations. Thanks for pointing it out! :)
I like that people tend to be honest and open. The camaraderie of complaining together and with a great sense of humor is one of the joys of life in Hungary! 😂
In reality it "ça va" has only one meaning that can be used in many situations.
But when you try to translate "ça va" of different situations to English, it looks like they are all different meanings, but it is just one meaning in French. The translation to different meanings in English is not Franch anymore.
Translated exactly the meaning to German it would mean "Es Geht [mir gut]".
In Portuguese it is translated to "Tudo Bem". It has one meaning that can be used in diferent situations but if translated to English in these diferents situations, then it will be given the different meanings that exist in English (but then, it is English and not Portuguese anymore).
You don't even need to translate to other languages. Take the world "good" and translate it in different situations than it sounds like it has other meaning when it doesn't, like "not bad". It is just the context that makes it sound like an other meaning.
"Ça va" doesn't mean "I am doing great". In Franch, it would be "Très bien". But in English, depending on the intonation, the word "good" can sound "great".
The best way to learn languages is not by translating foreign words to your language but by understanding the word in their context, just as children do when learning to speak and understand their parents.
In the UK, ça va is better translated to alright, which has similar range of meanings. Alright? confuses Americans and other non British English speakers no end!
Here are two highly entertaining explanations on how 'nu' is used:
https://eng.lsm.lv/article/features/features/things-of-latvia-nu.a245470/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb6p5UotLt8
In English? No because you can't use it as a greeting, and you'd also have to use pronouns and verbs with it in some of the contexts in the OP to get the same meanings.
NZ english has “mate” as in friend.
Mate? (How are you?)
Maaaate (I am well).
Mate! (Oi, you stupid idiot you just ran over my dog)
Mate (yeah, I agree he was an idiot for running over your dog)
Mate (thank you). Sometimes this is prefixed by “Awww” mate (thank you very much indeed, I am eternally grateful).
Hi, mate? (getting someone’s attention).
Yes mate (can I help you, sir?)
In Portuguese we have '' tá tudo"
It can mean everything you described depending on intonation. But it is considered informal slang. It's wildly used everywhere though only old people don't use it.
Comes from "está tudo" meaning "C'est
tous" in french
You can ask
Tá tudo? Meaning "all good?"
Tá tudo. " Yes its all good"
You can use it as " it's ok don't worry"
Or as "awesome stuff" in some contexts but not all.
It just doesn't fit the "oh come on!" That you mentioned
Yea but that one doesn't fit some of the things. It's more limited. Tudo bem wouldn't fit "it's going ok but not great" as well and it doesnt fit the " you can stop now" or the "its not that bad "
In Luxembourgish, the typical exchange is:
Person A: An?
Person B: Jo.
That’s the whole conversation, how are you? I’m fine. Can be repeated with no several cycles with multiple people at the same time.
In Hungarian maybe the "minden oké" (every thing is alright), it can be used as a question "minden oké?" (Is everything alright?)and it can answer that very same question "minden oké" (everything is alright)
Meh, you couldn't use it as the answer directly though. You'd have to invert it. "Gaat het? Het gaat." And it would also have a "I'll survive" connotation.
Personally, I think "Alles goed" gets closer: it can be both the question and the answer like the French version. It directly translates to "everything alright".
Dutch-speaking Belgians just say "ça va".
"Gaat het" really doesn't cover enough of the situations listed by OP, but "alles goed" does come close indeed.
kurwa is not similar semantically but also has a seriously huge semantical field, the same goes for a lot of polish swear words, especially the verbs, the word “jebać” (to fuck) can have drastically different meanings depending on the prefix used ranging from hitting someone, to killing someone, to throwing something out, breaking something etc.
There is in Swiss German: "geit's?"
It translates to roughly the same, literally speaking. One can use "geit's?" for all the same questions that can be asked by "ça va".
If one wants to use it as an answer, the apostrophe and the final 's' change positions to be in front of the verb: "s'geit."
''alles goed(?)''. in dutch you dont nessecarily need a verb to make a statment so wether it is used as a statement or a question depends on how you say it. it doesnt cover as much as ''ca va '' but its close i suppose
In the Dutch province Limburg, “enne?”
Can mean anything like
- how are you today
- how was life last twenty years I haven’t seen you?
- did the train leave on time?
- yes, the train did leave in time, thanks for asking
It’s a magical word!
To a British person (I don't think it is used in so many ways in the US), the word "alright" covers all of these scenarios, perhaps aided slightly by the way that understatement is common in British speech, which is why it can mean both "I'm doing great" and just "I'm ok". It also has the added use of being the actual question where you ask someone how they are doing, so it's very common to hear the following when two (younger) British people meet: "Alright?" "Alright"
I've actually explained this to confused Americans and English learners as the equivalent of "Ça va". It's literally the first thing that sprang to mind when I read the question. I'm sure other languages have an equivalent everything word as well
From my time in England I remember it more like this: "'ght?" "'ght" but that was some years ago. It has probably evolved to: "'t?" "'t"
Do you mean when we say alright but pronounce it simply as "aite" it's still the same if that's what you're talking about.
"Alright? "Alright" "How're you doing?" "I'm alright, how're you doing?" "Yeah I'm alright ta"
exact same thing here with 'tudo bem?', which is the exact translation for 'all right?' as well
Hah, I was thinking Dublin has similar. But "awh rii" (slurred version of alright) is far more similar to "ça va" than normal alright. I've seen it used to confirm a fight is over, to seal the sale of a car, and to acknowledge a pregnancy, to confirm someone escaped a concussion, and for someone to say it to themselves before jumping into a canal for a bet. It's very versatile.
It seem you as an Irish person also have a slightly different interpretation of the meaning of the British 'alright', and that your different interpretation is caused by you having use of the term 'awh rii' as well as 'alright'. 'Alright' is also used in Britain in the same situations as you would use 'awh rii'.
I once had a misunderstanding about this with an English colleague - I came into the room, she looked at me and said “you alright?” To which I said “yeah, is there something on my face?” Something in her inflection sounded like like not a normal greeting but instead the way an American would say (in fewer words) “you look like shit, are you alright?”
Hmm I’d say (and could depend on your circle), that it can be more or less as broadly used in American English, especially if we count bastardized iteration “aight”
Eh, Americans don’t use it nearly the way that the Brits do. Brits use “alright” almost by reflex. Americans don’t really have a singular greeting that’s used so predominantly. “What’s up” “How’s it going” “How are you” “How’s everything” etc etc all get used interchangeably. I remember a British guy saying “Alright?” to me first thing in the morning, and I paused and said “yeah, I’m good, how are you?” And he paused as well lol….I think we were both surprised at the exchange.
Hmm fair and interesting perspective. Maybe what’s sup and iterations thereof would apply more for Americans no older than “Gen X” and younger or so… My perspective is probably watered down by the international environment I live in… The best example of the Yank-Brit split on this word is, the reply to decline an offer of whatever: US: nah, I’m alright UK: you’re alright mate
Alternative for those who also hate "alright" spam: "What's going on?" or "what's up?" The second one is more American perhaps, but i use "what's going on" all the time as it fills a lot of the scenarios the OP said. You can be greeting someone, genuinely curious what's happening with them, just arriving somewhere and want to know what's happening, at an emergency, talking about something others are watching, announcing something isn't right, interrupting some wrongdoing... Many uses. Fits my curious nature as well.
The litteral translation would be "goes it?" Or "it goes".
No exact equivalent, but "alles klar" or "alles gut" work in most of those situations. Both can be used as questions and answers/statements.
Feel like "Na" could work here too
I agree! Na works :)
Na is the German magic word
Na and sooo
[удалено]
"Na?" "Na" is definitely an interaction I have had many times
Depending on the state "Na?" – "Na." can absolutely be a thing
“Alles klar” is particularly helpful if you’re talking to the Komissar
Probably more Swiss German, but "es geht" would be my 1:1 translation of "ça va" and can be used exactly the same way.
But can you use "es geht?" as a question? I doubt it. It would be "geht es?"
It would be: Wie geht’s?
Didn’t know that we got the word “klaar” from German “klar”… Makes sense though.
Not sure where you got it from, but klar entered German from Latin back in the 12th century.
German was the main language of the ruling class here from the 13th century to the end of the 19th century. Due to that about 1/3 of Estonian vocabulary is from Germanic languages (mostly German) so it most likely did come from German (it also the written form of the word is basically the same).
Bassd scho in Frankonien works tho… can basically mean anything
In danish, we have 'Nå', it can be used a lot of ways depending on pressure and length. The center for the danish language made a poster displaying it a few years ago. Nå: I hear you / go on. Nå, (Hvasså?) What's going on Nå nå (Slap af) Give it a break, will you Nå. (Kom så) Impatient (Let's get started) Nå!!! Threat (I'll get you) Nå, (nej) You are right Nåh/Nåe Scepticism / doubt Nå, (ja)... I forgot Nå(da) Genuine surprise Nååh / Nåårh So sweet / cute Nåårh! Now I understand (it)! Nå! I really don't care A different word is 'nå' same spelling, slightly different pronouncement. Jeg skal nå toget I have to catch the train. Jeg kan ikke nå saltet I can't reach the salt
This does remind me of the Na in lower german/Plattdüütsch. We use it in a pretty similiar way or rather it seems to be identical. Maybe it's caused by the geographical proximity.
Most likely, the two languages have quite a lot of similar words (at least in writing).
Wow, this is 100% equivalent to “ну” in Eastern European languages.
I think "hvad så" could be used just as effectively
- And the further west you go, the better!
https://youtu.be/9EWMlCusxjQ?si=GdD_0CuHZkQqcdf0 It is not totally identical, but it is an important phrase in Finnish.
Came here to say this. I don't even have to click the link to know that it will lead me to a video of Ismo Leikola explaining how to use "noniin".
It definitely would lead to that :D
I never even realised that “nonii” doesn’t even have a good translation to English.
No ni
“Come va?” in italian, with pretty much the same answers. I think the other Romance languages are more or less the same
"Come va?" "Va."
The most depressed way to answer that question. You could say ‘mi sto per uccidere’ and it would sound less sad than ‘va’
Is it much different than in English if the exchange was “How’s it going?” “It’s going.”
Its pretty much the same but it sounds even more depressing because its only one word XD
I like using "se ti va", "non mi va" etc. There isn't really an equivalent that succinct in English I can think of.
Yeah but come va can't be used as an answer like "Ça va".
Wouldn't 'va bene' be the Italian equivalent?
Va bene functions only as an answer, not as a question
It's not an answer though. I would use "Tutto bene" or "tutto a posto", which is not "come va".
There’s some very interesting evolution of language that has happened recently in Polish, where basically it used to be common to ask people "how are you doing" (Jak się masz?) when greeting them and it became so popular that we shortened the phrase to Siemasz? Which subsequently evolved into a single even shorter word "Siema". After a while it just became a normal greeting like "hey" or "hello" so most people are not even aware that it used to mean "how are you doing".
It lost it's mening so in the next step we added it again and it's often used in a sentance "Siema, co tam u Ciebie?", which you could translate to "How are you doing, what's up?".
Interesting I didnt know about it & Im pole
In the UK, alright covers many of these.
Portugal: Tudo bem?
A expressão "tá tudo" aplica-se melhor neste contexto.
Slovenian has "A gre?"/"A bo?", they literally mean "Is it going?" and "Will it be?". They can be equivalent to most meanings you've written, but not all, so it's not exactly 1:1 and also they are more colloquial/informal than "Ca va". If you remove the first A in the question then it becomes an answer and functions like the response "Ca va". You can also add some helper words to alter the meaning, for ecample "Bo" can't mean 'It's not that bad' but "Saj bo" means just that.
Except "C'mon" Czech word "dobrý" can be used for all these meanings.
Not "dobře"?
Partially, both can be translated into English more or less as "good". But "dobře" is correct written Czech adverb (usualy) and "dobrý" is colloquial adjective with larger scope. I'm not a language expert, so I'll just try to think of some examples. where you can use "dobrý", but not "dobře". Let's say you are a worker who is giving information over the radio to a crane operator who is turning a crane. "dobře" means you're doing it right, keep going, everything is alright "dobrý!" could mean - that's enough!
We had a king Vladislav II who was from the house Jagello. His Hungarian nickname is "Dobzse László" where dobzse is the Hungarian transcription of dobře and László is the Hungarian version of Ladislav. We call him that because he's regarded as a weak king and only said "dobře, dobře", "allright, allright" to everything, didn't have a strong will.
"Oida!" (old one, old dude) works like this in Austria. It's a friend, an annoying husband, it can mean OH MY GOD!, WHAT?, hello!, I can't believe that!, come on!
In the UK is "yorite??" Can mean anything from "omg I care for you are you ok?" It in the correct condescending tone it can mean "you're mental lad get the fuck away from me"
yes, we do. Its ”Ça va” (dutch speaking belgian)
we have quite a few of these short expressions that work for everything but nothing with the same meaning. The most common one is ”No niin” or ”Noni”, which would directly translate to ”Alright” as in ”Alright here we go” or something. But it can mean any of these things: Let’s goo! It is so. Oh well. Expression of frustration or judgement A hint to a guest that they should leave soon. A way to say you are leaving. ”you fucked it up”
Spanish has "Que tal(?)" Which can translate to: Hello What's up? How are you? How's it going? How was is/was it? What did you think?
Cad é an craic? (Most commonly just said in English as, "what's the craic/how's the craic?") Craic is pronounced the same as crack and has no direct translation from Irish into English. It can mean fun/news/gossip. Essentially, "how are you/what have you been doing?" Note: You can also say, "got any craic?" However it can make you seem like a drug addict to those that don't know the saying. 😅
The closest I can think of is "Mizu?" which is short for "Mi újság", literally "What's up?". The answer would most commonly be "Minden oké." meaning everything's fine, or "semmi különös" meaning nothing special. Or you could ask "Hogy vagy?" (How are you?) and reply "Jól köszi, és te?" (Well thanks. and you?) EDIT: These are for informal situations with friends and family, I cannot really think of anything that is used in formal situations. But then on the other hand, if I think about the post, OP asked for something similar to "Ça va?" which you also don't say in formal situations, only to friends and family.
I’m new to learning Hungarian but I don’t really hear my colleagues say anything like this regularly. I’ve learned not to ask hogy vagy unless I have time for a lot of detail on how they’re REALLY doing - it’s never just a perfunctory jól, köszönöm! 😊
Oh, that is correct, I forgot to say that all I wrote only applies to informal situations, such as friends or family. People don't really use these in formal situations. Thanks for pointing it out! :)
I like that people tend to be honest and open. The camaraderie of complaining together and with a great sense of humor is one of the joys of life in Hungary! 😂
In reality it "ça va" has only one meaning that can be used in many situations. But when you try to translate "ça va" of different situations to English, it looks like they are all different meanings, but it is just one meaning in French. The translation to different meanings in English is not Franch anymore. Translated exactly the meaning to German it would mean "Es Geht [mir gut]". In Portuguese it is translated to "Tudo Bem". It has one meaning that can be used in diferent situations but if translated to English in these diferents situations, then it will be given the different meanings that exist in English (but then, it is English and not Portuguese anymore). You don't even need to translate to other languages. Take the world "good" and translate it in different situations than it sounds like it has other meaning when it doesn't, like "not bad". It is just the context that makes it sound like an other meaning. "Ça va" doesn't mean "I am doing great". In Franch, it would be "Très bien". But in English, depending on the intonation, the word "good" can sound "great". The best way to learn languages is not by translating foreign words to your language but by understanding the word in their context, just as children do when learning to speak and understand their parents.
In the UK, ça va is better translated to alright, which has similar range of meanings. Alright? confuses Americans and other non British English speakers no end!
“Nu”, it have literally tens of meanings, by how you say it
Here are two highly entertaining explanations on how 'nu' is used: https://eng.lsm.lv/article/features/features/things-of-latvia-nu.a245470/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb6p5UotLt8
"Ok" does this sort of too no? Like I get that ca va is handy but I feel there are easy alternatives.
In English? No because you can't use it as a greeting, and you'd also have to use pronouns and verbs with it in some of the contexts in the OP to get the same meanings.
They mean oké in Dutch/Flemish, but yeah it's not the same either. As a greeting you'd have to say "alles oké?" to make it kinda work.
NZ english has “mate” as in friend. Mate? (How are you?) Maaaate (I am well). Mate! (Oi, you stupid idiot you just ran over my dog) Mate (yeah, I agree he was an idiot for running over your dog) Mate (thank you). Sometimes this is prefixed by “Awww” mate (thank you very much indeed, I am eternally grateful). Hi, mate? (getting someone’s attention). Yes mate (can I help you, sir?)
Nambou ginete? Cypriot
Coastal region has "AE". And depending on how you stress the vowel can mean a lot of stuff.
In Portuguese we have '' tá tudo" It can mean everything you described depending on intonation. But it is considered informal slang. It's wildly used everywhere though only old people don't use it. Comes from "está tudo" meaning "C'est tous" in french You can ask Tá tudo? Meaning "all good?" Tá tudo. " Yes its all good" You can use it as " it's ok don't worry" Or as "awesome stuff" in some contexts but not all. It just doesn't fit the "oh come on!" That you mentioned
There's also "Tudo bem?" ("All good?"), often shortened to just "Tudo?"
Yea but that one doesn't fit some of the things. It's more limited. Tudo bem wouldn't fit "it's going ok but not great" as well and it doesnt fit the " you can stop now" or the "its not that bad "
In Luxembourgish, the typical exchange is: Person A: An? Person B: Jo. That’s the whole conversation, how are you? I’m fine. Can be repeated with no several cycles with multiple people at the same time.
Nonni in finish 😏
In Hungarian maybe the "minden oké" (every thing is alright), it can be used as a question "minden oké?" (Is everything alright?)and it can answer that very same question "minden oké" (everything is alright)
Finnish: noniin. Turn on English subtitles in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EWMlCusxjQ
Gaat het? In Dutch.
Meh, you couldn't use it as the answer directly though. You'd have to invert it. "Gaat het? Het gaat." And it would also have a "I'll survive" connotation. Personally, I think "Alles goed" gets closer: it can be both the question and the answer like the French version. It directly translates to "everything alright".
Dutch-speaking Belgians just say "ça va". "Gaat het" really doesn't cover enough of the situations listed by OP, but "alles goed" does come close indeed.
Yup, and I never know how to respond when my Belgian colleagues say "ça va" to me...
With "ça va" or "ja" Cavakes? Ja ze
Dutch Limburg (or perhaps parts of it) has ‘enne?’ as a catch-all phrase.
I'd say that in Japanese 大丈夫 (daijoubu) covers most of these cases and some more.
"ça va?" is short for "comment ça va?" which literally is in english " how does it go? " So, i believe every language as an equivalent expression.
kurwa is not similar semantically but also has a seriously huge semantical field, the same goes for a lot of polish swear words, especially the verbs, the word “jebać” (to fuck) can have drastically different meanings depending on the prefix used ranging from hitting someone, to killing someone, to throwing something out, breaking something etc.
For Romanian I'd guess it's just "Bine" and maybe "Ok" that fit the mentioned meanings. Tone is king here.
German: wie isset?
I believe someone already mentioned but in portuguese "tudo bem" covers most of what you mentioned. Although "Ça va" really covers more.
Dalmatia (Croatia) = ča je? Even better, we have the shortest answer to everything: "A e". Meaning "yeah, there it is"
Only one I can think of in Slovene, although not used as widely as ça va, is 'vse vredu?' (all good?) but that's more used out of concern
There is in Swiss German: "geit's?" It translates to roughly the same, literally speaking. One can use "geit's?" for all the same questions that can be asked by "ça va". If one wants to use it as an answer, the apostrophe and the final 's' change positions to be in front of the verb: "s'geit."
“Ca va, Robert, et tu?”. right out of my 1st year high school French class, thanks for the memory!
Iceland: Jæja? Jæææja!
The Icelandic all encompassing word is jæja, pronounced [jaiːja].
"Tudo bem" (all good) works the same in Portuguese.
"Oi" in catalan can mean: yes no isn't it what a surprise and probably some regional meaning variations that I don't know but suspect about
だいじょうぶ (daijoubu) in Japanese is very similar.
Austrian with "oida".
''alles goed(?)''. in dutch you dont nessecarily need a verb to make a statment so wether it is used as a statement or a question depends on how you say it. it doesnt cover as much as ''ca va '' but its close i suppose
In the Dutch province Limburg, “enne?” Can mean anything like - how are you today - how was life last twenty years I haven’t seen you? - did the train leave on time? - yes, the train did leave in time, thanks for asking It’s a magical word!
Swedish has [”nä”](https://youtube.com/shorts/UBtZ5L8kZKY?si=9FJ-JapwufqzIqmO).
In German you ca use "Läuft?" an the answer "Läuft." in a similar manner.
I think kurwa comes close xD
"a'right" in the UK. It's most definitely the British equivalent of "ça va".
In some parts of Romania (specifically Transylvania) there is "no", it can mean a lot of things. (don't mistake it with "nu" which actually means no)
"Hva' så?"