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WC in different languages | ||
Tags: Meaning of words | Multilingual | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| sgh78 Diglot Senior Member France Joined 4435 days ago 163 posts - 215 votes  Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian, Norwegian, Latin, Persian, Biblical Hebrew, Arabic (classical), German | Message 33 of 43 24 April 2012 at 7:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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In France on the "public WC" we can read "WC" , "toilette publique" or simply "toilette" if there are a restroom in a street.
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| onurdolar Diglot Groupie TurkeyRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4446 days ago 98 posts - 147 votes Speaks: Turkish*, English Studies: Italian, German | Message 34 of 43 27 April 2012 at 8:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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In Turkey you will see "WC" sign for it, it is pronounced somewhat like how Italians
would pronounce it. However in speaking language noone ever says WC ( and W doesnt even exist in Turkish alphabet ) so we say "tuvalet" ( pronounced same as french toilette ) or lavabo. In Turkey you won't need to mention "public" when talking about a public toilette, it is understood when you just say toilette. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Rykketid Diglot Groupie Italy Joined 4627 days ago 88 posts - 146 votes Speaks: Italian*, English Studies: French | Message 35 of 43 17 July 2012 at 11:18am | IP Logged | ||
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Italian: WC but pronounced voo-chee.
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| dampingwire Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4459 days ago 1185 posts - 1513 votes Speaks: English*, Italian*, French Studies: Japanese | Message 36 of 43 17 July 2012 at 7:51pm | IP Logged | ||
Italian: Gabinetto doesn't seem to have been mentioned so far (and is less popular [as a word] than it might have been in the past). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6391 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 37 of 43 17 July 2012 at 10:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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In European Portuguese casa de banho is used, from what I know. I remember my aunt seeing it in my textbook and commenting that it's quite a beautiful word/expression for such a thing :D
On a side note, it gets awkward to come up with more synonyms while travelling together with someone. Especially when I went with my cousin to a rock festival in Finland and the talking was reduced to "who plays next?", "i'll buy something to eat", "i'm going to the toilet". it would've been funny to use the latter too many times so we (okay, I) said things like "i'm going you know where" or "i'm going as usual" :D Edited by Serpent on 17 July 2012 at 10:41pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tibo Pentaglot Newbie Romania Joined 5271 days ago 8 posts - 10 votes Speaks: French*, Romanian, Latin, Ancient Greek, Spanish Studies: English | Message 38 of 43 19 July 2012 at 3:48am | IP Logged | ||
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I remember seeing the word "pissotière" in a restaurant in Denmark, when I was a child, more than 30 years ago. I was with my father and we laughed a lot at that, because it's not exactly a polite word in French. I wonder if they really use or used to use that word. Perhaps it was meant to be exotic or funny, I don't know.
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| Duke100782 Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Philippines https://talktagalog.Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4282 days ago 172 posts - 240 votes Speaks: English*, Tagalog* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 39 of 43 07 September 2012 at 7:55am | IP Logged | ||
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I used to think the term "Comfort Room" or "CR" to refer to a lavatory was a usage
confined only to English spoken in the Philippines, or a Filipinism as local linguists would call it. However, at the Jakarta airport on my way home from a vacation in Bali, my wife pointed out that the signage referring to lavatories said "Comfort Room". Can anyone familiar with Indonesia confirm this, as my memory on this is a bit hazy? When I first started using Chinese Mandarin, I used to ask "Cesuo zai nar?" when looking for the lavatory, until once while sharing a pizza in restaurant with my Mandarin teacher she corrected me by saying that "Cesuo" was too coarse to use for a polite situation, and it would be preferable for me to use the more elegant "Weishengjian". Can anyone give any insights on this? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Dagane Triglot Senior Member SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4305 days ago 259 posts - 324 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishB2, Galician Studies: German Studies: Czech | Message 40 of 43 08 September 2012 at 12:53am | IP Logged | ||
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In Spain, apart from the forms already mentioned ("cuarto de baño", "baño", "aseo", "servicio", "servicios" and "lavabo"), there are some which aren't polite though they aren't offensive yet, such as "meadero" (the translation would be something like "pissing room") and... well, the counterpart could offend, but is easy to imagine.
Anyway I'm stunned! I had found different words in English, for example WC, toilet, lavatory and loo (I think I'm the first one in mentioning this one and I don't really know if whether is formal or informal), but "restroom" sounds... too polite! It's an euphemism! Flipo en colores :). 1 person has voted this message useful |
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