Spanish also does this. Borrowed word (verb) slaps an “ar” at the end and becomes a regular -ar verb. I was listening to a podcast the other day and the host said estoy googleando ahora. Got a chuckle out of me
You didn’t hear this from me but if it’s a word that comes from another language (like an anglicisme), you’ll hear people conjugate it like it’s a -er verb or you’ll hear people just not conjugate it at all.
For example, « il m’a spoilé » or « il m’a spoil » for spoiling a movie/tv show/book. Mostly because some ppl think doing the full conjugation sounds ugly. I’ve had this debate with my friends several times over because I like conjugating it but some of them hate it. And they also get all « why do you assume the verb would be 1er group what if it was 2e or 3e ? »
Just in case you’re out in the Francophone wild and you see someone use an English verb in a way you’re not expecting lol.
Brazilian portuguese has blá-blá-blá but there's the synonym nhenhenhém, that probably comes from old Tupi ñe'e ñe'e ñe'eng (reduplication of the verb to Speak)
In Portugal we can use bla bla bla but we can also use "e não sei quê".
Like "ela disse que ia buscar umas batatas, cenouras e nao sei quê".
I remember that Fabio Porchat, the brazilian comedian, has a funny character that tells a huge story and instead of explainin everything using words he just uses a lot of mumbling and weird words akin to bla bla bla.
I couldn't follow the story but my brazilian gf understood everything and was laughing a lot.
I completely don't remember where I learned this, but back in the days of the PlayStation 1, I ripped some music tracks directly from the disc, and since I didn't know what they were called, I just called them naninani1.mp3, naninani2.mp3 and so on.
I'm glad to know it meant the right thing! (which was nothing)
Fun note, if you ever hear a Japanese person say a filler word or an onomatopoeia word 3 times, there’s a good chance they’re from Saga prefecture. That’s just a quirk of their local dialect.
なんとかかんとか (nantoka kantoka) and なんちゃらかんちゃら (nanchara kanchara) and sometimes なんじゃらかんじゃら (nanjara kanjara), the final of which I did not realize were dialect until I looked it up now.
In Korean it's "mwo mwo mwo" which is basically the same thing lol. Seems like a lot of languages just repeat their "what" word when they wanna be dismissive
No not negative at all, it's often used in the context of conveying fluency in a language (e.g. "she is pera pera in English"), and in comics would be used to describe the sound of someone speaking fluidly usually in a foreign language.
Edit: I realised you may have been thinking of "bera bera", which is certainly negative, as in "that guy keeps going bera bera" (he just won't shut up).
So many times I'll see a little Spanish being used that I understand and I'll get tempted to sit down and actually study Spanish. As it is I'm doing a thing where I study whatever language for a little bit, rarely (it's more of a mental illness schtick than actual study).
Also "lässyn lässyn lässyn" and "jäkäti jäkäti jäks". I also would se "plaa plaa plaa" or at least pronounce it that way. B is not really a native letter in Finnish so it doesn't come as naturally.
Chechebureche, kuda, and dada can also be used as verbs (e.g. "Che! chumechechebureche ka nanaman!")! The nuances you gave are more apt (ano nga ba yung akma sa ingles? 😭), chuchu is the most accurate translation for blah blah as it is used in English (e.g. "Chuchuchu, pwede ba? Ang-ingay mo talaga!").
HAHAH omg sorry I failed to realize how flexible Filipinos are in turning words into verbs and you're extactly correct!! I just realized-- "Uma-ano nanaman sya" is another example 😭 which when translated directly and incorrecty is "he/she is wha-what ing again"
Filipino really is a language that sort of makes me grateful I'm a native cuz I can't imagine having to explain all these nuances to a new learner LOL
Edit: as for the chuchuchu, I haven't heard that used that way yet but I guess that's lucky for me since I wouldnt want to be the receiving end of that statement!
My Catalan exchange would always say “No se qué, no se cuantos” in Spanish when we would have our Catalan exchange. (literally translates to : I don’t know what, I don’t know how many.
I also have “na na ni, na na na” floating around somewhere in my brain but I can’t remember what language it is… probably French, Catalan or Spanish… maybe…
There we go then! It’s probably just French then. If Spanish doesn’t have it Catalan is unlikely to for this kind of thing (which I say with the purest intentions).
In Danish we also have "Blah Blah Blah", but it might be a loanword as the "h" indicates that it's the "a" sound from "army" and not the one in "America", which is more common in Danish.
We also have "At snakke sort" / "Sort Snak" (DT: To talk black / Black Speach) when someone is making absolutely no sense and sometimes, if something someone says really doesn't make sense we wil just say: "God dag mand økseskaft" / "Good day man axe-handle".
In Russian it's "ля-ля, тополя"("lya-lya, topolya", тополя is poplar trees, the stress is on the last syllable and it rhymes) or "ля-ля-ля"("lya-lya-lya") or "ла-ла-ла"("la-la-la", you can also say one after another like "la-la-la lya-lya-lya"), or "бла-бла-бла" similar to English. You can also say "и т.д. и т.п." out loud letter by letter and it's like saying "and so on and so forth" or "etc.", it's a common abbreviation in writing.
But there are probably other options I can't think of right now or some that are more region dependant, that's all that comes to mind at the moment.
In Italian we mostly use bla bla bla, and various onomatopoeias (?) mimicking the chatting.
If you're mocking someone you may use "gne gne gne" instead (gn sounds similar to ñ).
in Turkish we say "bilmem ne, bilmem ne, bilmem ne" which translates to "I don't know what, I don't know what, I don't know what", it roughly means "whatever".
or "bi şey, bi şey, bi şey" translating to "something, something, something"
or sometimes "şu, şu, şu" meaning "that, that, that"
or "falan filan" roughly translates to "and so on" or "as such".
Hahahaha honestly I debated whether to try to romanise it.. But it's a bit of a nightmare, because so many of the sounds don't exist in English!! Best I can do for 어쩌구 저쩌구 is 'uh-jjuh-goo juh-jjuh-goo', where the 'uh' is kind of like the English word 'up'!
Which language is that? In German there is a noun "Palaver", meaning pointless or empty talk or idle chatter or fuss. As I see, the English language also knows that word with the same meaning, but it is not very common.
I don't know if it's universal but my te reo Māori teacher used to say 'dara dara dara' in a particular rhythm (kind of like a horse trotting??) to mean 'and so on and so forth' or to indicate a blank space (in a sentence we were meant to fill, for example) and this has always stayed in my mind! Te reo doesn't have a d sound, though, only t.
In Arabic - Algerian dialect Wah wah wah (yes yes yes)
In french blablabla + rolling eyes
I'd love to know how Germans say it🇩🇪 I've recently fell in love with the language and started taking classes
In Korean, we say ‘어쩌고 저쩌고(u-jju-go ju-jju-go)’ and also ‘쌸라쌸라(shall-a-shall-a)’ especially in a situation someone speaks in a foreign language but we can’t understand..
Supposedly, this is where the term "barbarian" came into existence. The Romans, once they traveled to a certain point and couldn't understand the language, would say "bar bar" much like we say "blah blah" today.
In Finnish blaa blaa is common but we also have pälä pälä (ä=æ). Related to it we have even more words. The person saying the nonsense is pälättäjä, while the act itself is pälätys (y=ü). The verb would be pälättää. All of these can also be made with another base pölö (ö=œ/ɘ/ø), wich is more like a reskin than an actual separate word. So pick wichever you like or need!
French even has a verb for it - blablater.
I do appreciate French’s willingness to slap an -er onto a word and create a new verb 😆
Haha, reminds me of Spanish just slapping “hacer” in front of a word to make it into a verb. (I.e. “hacer bullying”).
Hacer clic is so cute
Spanish also does this. Borrowed word (verb) slaps an “ar” at the end and becomes a regular -ar verb. I was listening to a podcast the other day and the host said estoy googleando ahora. Got a chuckle out of me
Or Karol G singing about textando
In Washington DC, “lockear” is common.
And to say it in a very thick French accent. 😊
oh, stop blahblaing...
We do the same thing in English when I say "to blah blah blah" or "he's behind there blablablaing to the boss all day long"
Though to properly answer OP's question, we (in French) sometimes say set phrases like (et) patati patata or nanani nanana !
oh that's cool! in venezuelan spanish we do this too.
My french teacher always says “nanana”!
Blablais Blablais Blablai Blablons Blablez Blablent?
If the verb had been "blabler", yes; but it's blablater, so it's blablatais, blablatais, blablatai, blablatons, blablatez, blablatent https://la-conjugaison.nouvelobs.com/du/verbe/blablater.php
That feels like a mix of present and imperfect. Surely it would be
Present:
Je blablate
Tu blablates
Il/elle blablate
Nous blablatons
Vous blablatez
Ils/elles blablatent
Imperfect:
Je blablatais
Tu blablatais
Il/elle blablatait
Nous blablations
Vous blablatiez
Ils/elles blablataient
You didn’t hear this from me but if it’s a word that comes from another language (like an anglicisme), you’ll hear people conjugate it like it’s a -er verb or you’ll hear people just not conjugate it at all.
For example, « il m’a spoilé » or « il m’a spoil » for spoiling a movie/tv show/book. Mostly because some ppl think doing the full conjugation sounds ugly. I’ve had this debate with my friends several times over because I like conjugating it but some of them hate it. And they also get all « why do you assume the verb would be 1er group what if it was 2e or 3e ? »
Just in case you’re out in the Francophone wild and you see someone use an English verb in a way you’re not expecting lol.
Same in Croatian: blabetati
Brazilian portuguese has blá-blá-blá but there's the synonym nhenhenhém, that probably comes from old Tupi ñe'e ñe'e ñe'eng (reduplication of the verb to Speak)
Also "e pipipi, popopó"
Foi isso na qual eu tava pensando
Are all of the o’s pronounced like ó?
Yeah, when I first wrote the comment I had written pópópó and then I thought "wait, that's not right"
Interesting.
🎵 piipapii papipa piipapii 🎵 -- from end credits music to One Piece, a Japanese anime.
I've also been taught 'sei que lá, sei que lá, sei que lá' :)
In Portugal we can use bla bla bla but we can also use "e não sei quê".
Like "ela disse que ia buscar umas batatas, cenouras e nao sei quê".
I remember that Fabio Porchat, the brazilian comedian, has a funny character that tells a huge story and instead of explainin everything using words he just uses a lot of mumbling and weird words akin to bla bla bla. I couldn't follow the story but my brazilian gf understood everything and was laughing a lot.
In Uzbek we say boq boq (pronounced like bock bock)
What noise do you make when you do an impression of a chicken?
I just imagine a whole country of the arrested development family.
Doesn't boq mean poop?
My japanese professor said "nani nani nani" (what what what) but that doesnt seem universal
Nantoka nantoka or nanchara konchara are also common. I usually hear people just use two nanis (nani nani). 3 is unique
You can also use dare dare (who who) for "someone" "whatshername" or any other generic person standin
I completely don't remember where I learned this, but back in the days of the PlayStation 1, I ripped some music tracks directly from the disc, and since I didn't know what they were called, I just called them naninani1.mp3, naninani2.mp3 and so on.
I'm glad to know it meant the right thing! (which was nothing)
Oooo good shout! I love learning this kind of thing. I think the sillyness that was happening mightve influenced syaing it three times? Idk lol.
Thank you!
I’m curious! “Good shout”…this is Australian/NZ? Or from somewhere else?
I’ve also seen it used to say someone will pay for something for someone else, like for their lunch, I think?
Good shout means good idea, we also say it in the UK
Well im from california (us). I use it to mean good idea/good call like the other person said
Huh! I never thought of it as being used in the States. Thanks!
Fun note, if you ever hear a Japanese person say a filler word or an onomatopoeia word 3 times, there’s a good chance they’re from Saga prefecture. That’s just a quirk of their local dialect.
なんとかかんとか (nantoka kantoka) and なんちゃらかんちゃら (nanchara kanchara) and sometimes なんじゃらかんじゃら (nanjara kanjara), the final of which I did not realize were dialect until I looked it up now.
In Korean it's "mwo mwo mwo" which is basically the same thing lol. Seems like a lot of languages just repeat their "what" word when they wanna be dismissive
Also 어쩌고 저쩌고!
I’ve also seen くどくど, an onomatopoeia used to express tedium, used in a “Blah blah blah” context.
I wish it was! I have used it as may space holder word when I want my students to guess the missing word.
i thought its "pera pera", i've seen it in manga often
Pera pera can be used to say that someone is fluent in a language, or it can be used as onomatopoeia for speaking quickly, rambling, etc
From my understanding that one has a negative context
No not negative at all, it's often used in the context of conveying fluency in a language (e.g. "she is pera pera in English"), and in comics would be used to describe the sound of someone speaking fluidly usually in a foreign language.
Edit: I realised you may have been thinking of "bera bera", which is certainly negative, as in "that guy keeps going bera bera" (he just won't shut up).
I thought ぺらぺら was for fluency!! I thinj you're right about me mixing it with べらべら (damn you だくてん)
my bad..
???
Just bla bla bla in Spanish 😂
Same in Czech.
There are so many words between Czech and Spanish that mean similar things, it's almost uncanny.
Týpek = tipo = bloke, guy Čutat = chutar = play football Bota = bota Pískat = pitar = blow the whistle
Or, as with "píča" and "picha", the exact opposites :) There are quite a few false friends as well: hora, kasa, rána, málo, pan, ropa...
So many times I'll see a little Spanish being used that I understand and I'll get tempted to sit down and actually study Spanish. As it is I'm doing a thing where I study whatever language for a little bit, rarely (it's more of a mental illness schtick than actual study).
Not related but "pica" in Brazil means Penis and "picha" in Portugal has the same meaning.
Yes, that's what I meant by "opposites". In Czech it's a bad word for what the girls have :)
In Finnish, "pälä pälä pälä" or "blaa blaa blaa". Sometimes people use for example "pölö pölö pölö" and "hölö hölö hölö" to make it sound more goofy.
Also "lässyn lässyn lässyn" and "jäkäti jäkäti jäks". I also would se "plaa plaa plaa" or at least pronounce it that way. B is not really a native letter in Finnish so it doesn't come as naturally.
Yeah, you're right, many Finns will indeed say it with "p" instead. I didn't come to think of that because I myself always say it with "b".
This is unrelated but how does one achieve C3 in a language?
It's a joke, obviously :D Finnish is simply my native language.
Mä tiin ;)
Also "plää plää plää"
In Chinese, it’s 吧啦吧啦 (bālābālā), pretty similar actually, but better suited for their phonetic system
I also like 什么什么的 as a “blahblah” or “and so on” kinda phrase.
等等等 is also sometimes used as an "and so on" or "et cetera"
之类的 would be a fairly common way of saying it, translates to etc
That would mean "crazy" in German but fourth tone on là
I have heard “summa summa summa” more often,
It's shenme 什么
I have a Taiwanese / Min Nan accent.
chechebureche in Tagalog is so fun to say (also chuchu, dada, and kuda)
Is this a real thing? I’m Filipino and have never heard this
Haven't heard chechebureche in a long while but yes it's true but not used in the same way as blah blah blah.
Blah blah blah is usually dismissive say when you're not interested "blah blah blah whatever" Or "blah blah blah Im not listening
While chechebureche, dada, etc. acts more like a noun that means " Nonsense " e.g. "andaming chechebureche"
Dada and kuda specifically denotes "spouting nonsense" Or "speaking too much" e.g. "Andaming dada" "Puro kuda"
Edit: dada and kuda is still quite commonly used tho
Chechebureche, kuda, and dada can also be used as verbs (e.g. "Che! chumechechebureche ka nanaman!")! The nuances you gave are more apt (ano nga ba yung akma sa ingles? 😭), chuchu is the most accurate translation for blah blah as it is used in English (e.g. "Chuchuchu, pwede ba? Ang-ingay mo talaga!").
HAHAH omg sorry I failed to realize how flexible Filipinos are in turning words into verbs and you're extactly correct!! I just realized-- "Uma-ano nanaman sya" is another example 😭 which when translated directly and incorrecty is "he/she is wha-what ing again"
Filipino really is a language that sort of makes me grateful I'm a native cuz I can't imagine having to explain all these nuances to a new learner LOL
Edit: as for the chuchuchu, I haven't heard that used that way yet but I guess that's lucky for me since I wouldnt want to be the receiving end of that statement!
In Turkish we say "vesaire vesaire(and so fort)". However I'm not sure if this equals to blah blah blah.
Falan filan could count?
That sounds more accurate
i dont know if this could really count but i think "bilmem ne bilmem ne" could fit too
This is the one I use on a daily basis!
In French « et patati et patata ».
You sure this ain't potatO potAto? 😂
Yada yada yada New Yorker
Haha I feel like both are used plenty where I am in the U.S. (St. Louis area). Probably just the country in general tbh
You yada yada’d the best part!
My Catalan exchange would always say “No se qué, no se cuantos” in Spanish when we would have our Catalan exchange. (literally translates to : I don’t know what, I don’t know how many.
I also have “na na ni, na na na” floating around somewhere in my brain but I can’t remember what language it is… probably French, Catalan or Spanish… maybe…
From your list, I can confirm that at least French has this! Furthermore it doesn't exist in Spanish, though I don't know about Catalan.
There we go then! It’s probably just French then. If Spanish doesn’t have it Catalan is unlikely to for this kind of thing (which I say with the purest intentions).
This post makes me realize there's no equivalent to this in Thai. Some ppl say blah blah blah but that's loaned from English and also quite uncommon.
In Polish we usually say ble ble ble or bla bla bla or even blebleble/blablabla
Also “cośtam cośtam”, “pitu pitu” and “pierdu pierdu”, depending on the context
In Danish we also have "Blah Blah Blah", but it might be a loanword as the "h" indicates that it's the "a" sound from "army" and not the one in "America", which is more common in Danish.
We also have "At snakke sort" / "Sort Snak" (DT: To talk black / Black Speach) when someone is making absolutely no sense and sometimes, if something someone says really doesn't make sense we wil just say: "God dag mand økseskaft" / "Good day man axe-handle".
Fascinating, I love Danish
In Russian it's "ля-ля, тополя"("lya-lya, topolya", тополя is poplar trees, the stress is on the last syllable and it rhymes) or "ля-ля-ля"("lya-lya-lya") or "ла-ла-ла"("la-la-la", you can also say one after another like "la-la-la lya-lya-lya"), or "бла-бла-бла" similar to English. You can also say "и т.д. и т.п." out loud letter by letter and it's like saying "and so on and so forth" or "etc.", it's a common abbreviation in writing.
But there are probably other options I can't think of right now or some that are more region dependant, that's all that comes to mind at the moment.
blablabla in Dutch
kaza kaza kaza in arabic
اعتقد الخ الخ إلخ احسن
ممكن، علمت «كزة كزة» من استاذي اللبنانية. ممكن مختلف في الفصحى
In Italian we mostly use bla bla bla, and various onomatopoeias (?) mimicking the chatting. If you're mocking someone you may use "gne gne gne" instead (gn sounds similar to ñ).
It's still English, but I prefer "yada yada yada..."
I don't know if that's true for all dialects of basque, but in mine we say "ttar ttar ttar"
In Dakhni we say ‘bak bak bak’, or ‘bakna’, literally meaning ‘to bak’
Kona kona kona - malayalam🇮🇳
In Arabic it's "Elakh elakh elakh" elakh it's short for "ela akhir" which translates to "to the end", as in skip to the end.
It's also used for etc.
It’s pretty universal actually, maybe aside from some East Asian langhages
In Serbian we say bla, bla, truć, truć (pronounced roughly: trooch trooch, with a short ‘oo’ sound)
in Turkish we say "bilmem ne, bilmem ne, bilmem ne" which translates to "I don't know what, I don't know what, I don't know what", it roughly means "whatever".
or "bi şey, bi şey, bi şey" translating to "something, something, something"
or sometimes "şu, şu, şu" meaning "that, that, that"
or "falan filan" roughly translates to "and so on" or "as such".
all depending on the context
in Korean, depends on the context it comes like next phrases
- 운운
- 왈왈왈
- 이러쿵저러쿵
- 궁시렁궁시렁
hmm. yes, context dependant.
But odd picks.
어쩌구 저쩌구 would be my first pick without context.
궁시렁궁시렁 is the sound of mumbling by a crowd. Can't quite imagine it being used for "blah blah".
이러쿵저러쿵 is "like this, like that", so might be a candidate for blah blah, but not really.
I'd need context of 왈왈왈 or 운운, but again... not really.
Yup, I scrolled down to add 어쩌구 저쩌구 if It hadn't been mentioned already!
Agree with all your comments, plus I have definitely heard 왈왈왈 used.
I love the fact that the Korean speakers basically spoke only for themselves in this thread. Lol Guys, transliteration, please?
Hahahaha honestly I debated whether to try to romanise it.. But it's a bit of a nightmare, because so many of the sounds don't exist in English!! Best I can do for 어쩌구 저쩌구 is 'uh-jjuh-goo juh-jjuh-goo', where the 'uh' is kind of like the English word 'up'!
Ah thanks! 😁 Is the Revised Romanization system not appropriate?
Palaver, palaver.
Which language is that? In German there is a noun "Palaver", meaning pointless or empty talk or idle chatter or fuss. As I see, the English language also knows that word with the same meaning, but it is not very common.
German. I guess it’s more an addition, like “bla bla bla, palaver, palaver“.
Oh, I know in German we also use to say "Rhabarber, Rhabarber" when someone is talking nonsense.
yaddayaddayadda...
I don't know if it's universal but my te reo Māori teacher used to say 'dara dara dara' in a particular rhythm (kind of like a horse trotting??) to mean 'and so on and so forth' or to indicate a blank space (in a sentence we were meant to fill, for example) and this has always stayed in my mind! Te reo doesn't have a d sound, though, only t.
German just removes the Hs
I guess it's the same in polish: blablabla
I'm not sure if it stays true for all Malays but we say "potpetpotpet" most of the time.
In Hebrew it's בלה בלה בלה
Which is still Bla Bla Bla
In Arabic - Algerian dialect Wah wah wah (yes yes yes) In french blablabla + rolling eyes I'd love to know how Germans say it🇩🇪 I've recently fell in love with the language and started taking classes
Eine sehr schöne Sprache, though it gets less love than French or Italian...
Finde ich auch, schön und ein bisschen unterschätzt
Sometimes in my region in Brazil we say pipipi popopó instead of blablabla.
Polish got bla bla bla
In my country (Cuba) we speak Spanish but specifically for us I've seen "bim bam bim bam" or "bim ba bim bam" 😭
Habi jabi : Bengali and some dialects of Hindi
In Korean, we say ‘어쩌고 저쩌고(u-jju-go ju-jju-go)’ and also ‘쌸라쌸라(shall-a-shall-a)’ especially in a situation someone speaks in a foreign language but we can’t understand..
Pälä pälä pälä
Supposedly, this is where the term "barbarian" came into existence. The Romans, once they traveled to a certain point and couldn't understand the language, would say "bar bar" much like we say "blah blah" today.
In Mexican Spanish: wiri wiri
Bla bla bla in german lol
In Cantonese we can say 乜乜乜
In Esperanto it's blablabla.
In portuguese we say "blá blá blá".
In Finnish blaa blaa is common but we also have pälä pälä (ä=æ). Related to it we have even more words. The person saying the nonsense is pälättäjä, while the act itself is pälätys (y=ü). The verb would be pälättää. All of these can also be made with another base pölö (ö=œ/ɘ/ø), wich is more like a reskin than an actual separate word. So pick wichever you like or need!
I've heard Koreans say 블라블라블라 (bullabullabulla) but I think it's borrowed from English
"Yara yara" in Azerbaijani
Blah, blah, blah!
A Ukrainian former coworker used “ля-ля фа-фа,” (lya-lya fa-fa), but I’m not sure if that’s a just her thing, or more common than that.