Advertisements
Please – Su la neexee (soo luh ney-khey)
and now en français; S’il vous plaît (seel voo pley)
Thank you – Jërejëf (je-re-jef)
and en français; Merci (mair-see)
You’re welcome – Amul sóló (ah-mool so-loe)
en français; Je vous en prie (zher voo zom pree)
Janga Wolof 
7 responses to “Please, Thank You, You’re Welcome!”
I’ve also heard people say your welcome in the following ways:
Jaaraama
Ñoo ko bokk (I think translated ‘Don’t mention it’.)
LikeLike
I also have a source that has ‘jaaraama’ as a Pulaar word for ‘thank you’.
LikeLike
I was taught that the phrase
Ñoo ko bokk
spoken in response to thanks translates as “It is for us” but is used similarly as “don’t mention it” in other languages.
LikeLike
jaaraama is not wolof, it is pulaar. I am wolof from my dad’s side and peuhl from my mom’s
LikeLike
I don’t agree with “su la neexee” meaning “please”. I would say “doo ma baal” before asking for a favor, example: “doo ma baal, nga dioottali ma kuddu bi” meaning “could you please, pass me the spoon” or “nga baal ma” after asking for a favor “doo ma diottali kuddi bi, nga baal ma”. I teach wolof on youtube, please visit my channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheAfricanLanguages/videos
LikeLike
Just like any language there’s many different ways to say the same thing and as a non-native speaker I can’t really say which way is most common but in all of the resource materials that I have they have some variation of ‘su la neexee’ for ‘(if you) please’. Another variation being ‘bu la neexee’. In the sources I have ‘su la neexee’ is used after a request instead of before…is this incorrect? I see that in your video lesson ‘Love and Affection’ that you have a phrase that uses ‘neex’ and it looks like it translates as ‘please/like’. So I’m wondering if there is any situation that ‘su la neexee’ would be appropriate? Thank you, and your videos are great by the way!
LikeLike
Also…doesn’t ‘baal’ mean something like ‘excuse me’? So you’re not actually saying ‘please’ per se but saying ‘excuse me’ or ‘pardon me’ in order to get their attention, correct? In English we might say something like “Excuse me, could you please pass me the salt?” using both ‘excuse me’ to get their attention and ‘please’ to politely make a request. Is this unusual in Wolof? Thanks again…
LikeLike