Visitors may be surprised to discover that "please" doesn't work quite the same way across the Nordic countries – revealing a very different way of thinking about politeness.
Norwegian has ‘x, vær så snill’ which is functionally ‘x, please’ so far as I can tell. Adding ‘takk’ (thanks) at the end of a sentence is another way.
Dutch also uses a phrase for ‘please’: ‘alsjeblieft’, which is (originally) ’als [het] je blieft’ meaning ‘if it is good to you’.
But ‘believen’ in this sense is quite archaic, so many people just know the word ‘alsjeblieft’ as ‘please’ without knowing its original meaning (hence why it’s written as one word).
Norwegian has ‘x, vær så snill’ which is functionally ‘x, please’ so far as I can tell. Adding ‘takk’ (thanks) at the end of a sentence is another way.
Dutch also uses a phrase for ‘please’: ‘alsjeblieft’, which is (originally) ’als [het] je blieft’ meaning ‘if it is good to you’.
But ‘believen’ in this sense is quite archaic, so many people just know the word ‘alsjeblieft’ as ‘please’ without knowing its original meaning (hence why it’s written as one word).
That’s interesting! To me, it reads as ‘if I (have) belief’; false cognates are fun!
Edit: s/toe/to me; I hate typing on mobile
The actual cognate is ‘belove’, which works quite well.
Thank you!
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