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+1 or 'No, thank you' We don't reply 'No, please' in English when someone is offering you something and you wish to politely say no to it.
I agree, and reported that, at the least, no, thanks ought to be allowed as an alternative. I also suggested the inapt feel that "no, please" gives in English, despite its more literal rendering of the Greek. I expect that the Greek way of saying it is natural to Greek, but the English way of saying it is also natural to English, and the literal translations of one to the other seem to be quite lacking, while the natural ones convey quite the same meanings.
It is not natural in Greek either. Instead you should say "Όχι, ευχαριστώ".
Ah, ευχαριστώ! I suppose that in that case, we should translate this exercise as "no, please" - equally awkward in two languages! :)
Surely could be. And we have certainly demonstrated that translation can be tortuous. :)
Good to know. And here I thought "Όχι, ευχαριστώ" was yet another of my awkward foreignisms I've been cluelessly saying to everyone.
If you want to politely decline, then this sounds unnatural in both languages and should be "Όχι, ευχαριστώ" - "No, thanks" instead. But I think that there is another case, where imho "Όχι, παρακαλώ" - "No, please" could work for both languages maybe. For example, you are in a bus and you want to offer your seat to an elderly lady. "-Please maam, take my seat. -Oh, it's not necessary dear, you don't have to get up. -No, please (I insist)." I'm pretty sure it sounds ok in Greek, can any native English speaker confirm if it could work in English as well?
This is exactly the way I would expect "no" and "please" to be used together in English. It's not used to decline something politely. It is, as given here, used to repeat an invitation over a rejection - to "insist". I can think of one more possibility, and that is to reject another person's suggestion over their repeated insistence: "Here, let me just brush that off", "No, thanks", "But it's no trouble at all", "NO, please!"
Thie words for yes and no confused me first time I heard them. Οχι sounds like "ok", and ναι sounds like "nay"
οχι sounds more like o-he and ναι sounds more like neh from the audio clips.
Yes, that is much closer. English-speaker ears sometimes go to what's familiar to English-speakers. This is a natural occurence that happens as a result of the brain processing that follows the sound reception in the ear. It's part of what gives us fluency: quick recognition. It's a learned response, and can be altered by further learning.
Yes, this is very true, and it should be actively used to get maximum learning. It especially helps building vocabulary. When you make the connections between something new and something familiar you automatically get the benefit from already existing brain pathways, instead of having to build "brand new" ones. You get the best effect if you can get as many senses involved as possible, both audio, visual and tactile. But sometimes this mechanism misfires, as in my experience. It wasn't really a big challenge to remember the words, but rather an amusement, which actually helped me remember. Humour and playing with words is also a great way of remembering words and grammar.
"no, please stop" or "no, I'm begging you" or perhaps "no, you're welcome" OR you could just change it to "Όχι, ευχαριστώ" and avoid all the confusion
"no, please stop" would be "Όχι. Σε παρακαλώ σταμάτα."
no, I'm begging you - Όχι. Σε ικετεύω. / Σε παρακαλώ.
no, you're welcome - in Greek you can't say "Όχι, παρακαλώ." You can say "Μη με ευχαριστείτε. Δεν κάνει τίποτα." (Don't thank me. You're welcome.) / "Μη με ευχαριστείτε. Ήταν χαρά μου (να βοηθήσω)" (lit. Don't thank me. It was a pleasure of mine (to help out)
