How to Say No in Various Languages

Say lo to say no in Hebrew. Lo is pronounced loh. The oh has a low tone, and the emphasis in the pronunciation is on the "L" sound. In Hebrew, yes is written כן, and it is pronounced ken. In ancient times, Hebrew was spoken in Palestine and was starting to be replaced by the Western Aramaic dialect by the 3rd century. In the 9th century, the spoken language of Hebrew declined except in liturgical practices and literature. It wasn't until the 19th and 20th century that the language was revived and made the official language of Israel when it became a nation in 1948. There approximately 5 million native speakers of Hebrew.^[20]

• Hebrew has 22 letters and is written from right to left in a Semitic script. ^[21]
• In Hebrew, “I have no idea” is transliterated as, ein li mu-sag and is written, אין לי מושג.^[22]
• A Hebrew saying with lo is, מרוב עצים לא רואים את היער, and it is transliterated as merov etzim lo ro’im eth ha’ya’ar. Directly translated it means that the trees can’t see the forest,and is the same as the English saying that means you should be careful to keep the big picture in mind when struggling through day-to-day life.^[23]

Say la in Arabic to say no. You pronounce la with a glottal stop at the end of the word laa’. An example of a glottal stop is between the words “uh” and “oh” in “uh-oh.”^[24] To say “no thank you” in the Lebanese dialect of Arabic you would say la` cukran. It is written in Arabic, لا شكرا. To say yes in Arabic is na’am’ or نعم and is pronounced naäam. The middle “a” has a sound like a soft aargh.^[25] Arabic is the language of the Qurʾān and the religious language of all muslim people, and it is the most developed of the Semitic languages.

• Arabic is spoken in Northern Africa, the Arabian peninsula, and parts of the Middle East.There are many countries with Arabic as an official language including Algeria, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Niger, Oman, Palestinian Territories, Saudi Arabia, Quatar, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Western Sahara, and Yemen.
• Arabic is the fifth most spoken language in the world with 206 million native speakers and 24 million second language speakers.^[26]
• To say, “I have no idea,” you would say, La adril! In Arabic it is written as, لاأدري.
• A quote in Egyptian Arabic with la is transliterated as la yuldaġ il-mo'men min goHr marratein. Written in Arabic it is, لا يلدغ المؤمن من جحر مرتين, and it literally means the believer is not bitten from the same hole twice. Which is the equivalent to the saying in English, "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.^[27]

Say le in Maltese to say no. Le is pronounced as it looks. ^[28] Iva is yes in Maltese and it is pronounced Eve-a. The Maltese language is close to being a dialect of Arabic, being most closely related to Algerian or Tunisian dialects of Arabic, and it is a Semitic language spoken on the island of Malta. Unlike dialects of Arabic, however, Maltese is heavily influenced by Italian and Sicilian. Also unlike Arabic, Maltese is written in a Latin script. There are two dominant variations of Maltese split by class between the educated upper and middle classes living near cities like the capital, Valletta, and the industrial and agricultural classes that speak a dialect closer to the Arabic roots of Maltese. There are roughly half a million people who speak Maltese in the world.

• Malta is an archipelago located in the Mediterranean sea between the Northern coast of Africa and Sicily. Malta was first populated by Arabs in 870 CE who stayed until 1090 when it was taken over by Europeans. Malta was ruled by various Europeans including the Sicilians until 1530, the Italians until 1798, and finally the British until 1964 when Malta gained independence.
• To say, never you would say quatt pronounced ’at. Nothing in Maltese is xejn pronounced sheyn. To say, none you would say hadd pronounced had.
• A quote from Maltese is, Hadd ma jiehu xejn mieghu, and it means something like no one takes anything with him after he dies.^[29]

Say hapana in Swahili to say no. The emphasis is on the "AP" when you pronounce the word hapana. To say yes in Swahili, you would say ndiyo. Swahili is a Bantu language that is the native language of around 10 million people. Most importantly, Swahili is the lingua franca of Eastern Africa and is used to as a bridge language for Africans of different dialects and languages that is used to communicate all the way from Kenya to Tanzania, including the African Great Lakes region.^[30]

• Swahili is a hybrid between the Arabic and Bantu languages. In its beginning, Swahili developed through the contact of Arabic traders with the Bantu-speaking tribes. Much of its vocabulary is borrowed from Arabic while the grammar is from the Bantu language. The original scripts that are found of Swahili were written in Arabic but Swahili now uses the Roman alphabet.^[31]
• To say, "No thank you" in Swahili you would say, Hapana asante. ^[32]
• A quote with hapana in Swahili is kuambizana kuko kusikilizana hapana. and means that no one ever listens to advice.

Say Bù to say no in Mandarin Chinese. No is written 不 and pronounced bu4. ^[33] "Not" in Mandarin is very similar and is written 不是 and pronounced bu2shi4. The 4 in the pronunciation means that it is a high tone falling and should be said like a curt command in English. In Mandarin, there are five tones which determine the meaning of words. The tone determines the meaning of the word as much as the difference between the words horse and mother. For example, depending on the tone given to the word "ma" in Mandarin, it could mean mother (妈), flax (麻), horse (马), scold (骂), or a question participle (吗). ^{[34] [35]}

• Mandarin is the most spoken language in China as well as the world. There are 873 million native speakers of Chinese and 178 million second language speakers. It is an official language in China and Singapore. People in the north of the Yangtze River in China speak Mandarin along with other parts of the population, and overall, it is the native language of ⅔ of the population.
• There are four types of Mandarin spoken in China with the most prominent form being the form in the capital, Beijing. The form in Beijing is considered Modern Standard Chinese or Guoyu.^[36]
• To say “No, thank you,” you would say bu2xie4, and it is written as 不谢. The tone 2 means that the pronunciation of bu2xie4 is a middle pitch that is rising, much like a question in English. The 4 means that it is a high tone falling and should be said like a curt command in English. An informal way to say, “No need to thank me” or “Not at all” in Mandarin is bu2yong4xie4. It is written, 不用谢.
• A quote with bù in Mandarin is 不作死就不会死 or bù zuō sǐ jiù bú huì sǐ. Literally translated it means "no zuo no die" which means that if you don’t do foolish things, you won’t be in danger of the repercussions of your folly. ^[37]

Say ma ho bu in Burmese, or Myanmar, to say no. When using a negation in Burmese, you use the structures, ma + ___ + bu or ma + ___ + neh. The first indicates that the verb did not accomplish what it does, for example, nei ma kaing bu means you did not touch it. Nei ma kaing neh structure means that the verb must not be successful, and the translation is “you do not touch it.” To say yes in Burmese, you say ho de.^[38] Burmese is spoken in Myanmar, which was formally known as Burma, and it is located in the western part of mainland Southeast Asia.^[39]

• “Never” in Burmese is be daw hma. “No problem” in Burmese is pyat tha nar ma hoat ba bu.
• The rounded script of written Burmese comes from the use of palm leaves as the original writing materials. Early Burmese script can be found from as early as the 11th century, and this script was a derivative of the Pāli alphabet of India and Taiwan.^[40]
• Burmese is a tonal language like Mandarin and has three tones, high, low, and creaky as well as a stopped and reduced tone.