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English is one of the most popular languages in the world. About 2 billion people speak it but to find out just how deeply it has really made its way into cultures around the world, Reddit user everythingtiddiesboi made a post on the platform, asking "Non-English speakers of Reddit; the way Americans use foreign words such as Bon Appétit and Sayonara in regular conversation, what English words do you use?"

And their call was answered. People immediately took to the comment section, sharing the okays and randoms they hear in their countries, providing interesting insights into our collective linguistic landscape.

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#1

Norwegians use 'Texas' as an adjective in describing parties, as in, 'That party was Texas!' In this context it means both 'huge and epic' and 'probably embarrassing for everybody involved.

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Everythingtiddiesboi told Bored Panda it was actually their own language that inspired the post in the first place. "I was just thinking about all the foreign words I say as an English speaker (for example, gesundheit, sayonara, adios, etc.)," they said.

"All the responses made me realize that almost everyone in the world says 'OK' and 'f**k'."

The technologies of telephones, radio, TV, records, CDs, mobile phones and the internet have enabled most people in the world to access each other's language really fast. David Crystal, author of "English as a Global Language," said the world has changed so drastically that history is no longer a guide.

"This is the first time we actually have a language spoken genuinely globally by every country in the world," he told The New York Times. "There are no precedents to help us see what will happen."

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    #2

    In France, a lot of "Ouat Ze Feuk" (wtf)

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    And it seems that it's going to stay that way. At least for a while. "English is dominant in a way that no language has ever been before," John McWhorter, a linguist at the Manhattan Institute, a research group in New York, and the author of a history of language called 'The Power of Babel,' said. "It is vastly unclear to me what actual mechanism could uproot English given conditions as they are."

    As English continues to spread, it is fragmenting -- just like Latin did -- into a family of dialects, and linguists say it could even lead to fully-fledged languages - known as Englishes.

    However, unlike Latin, most scholars say English seems to be too widespread and too deeply entrenched to die out. Instead, it is likely to survive in some simplified international form - sometimes called Globish or World Standard Spoken English.
    #3

    In Poland we often use "sory" (pronounced a bit differently than sorry) instead of przepraszam, guess why.

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    #4

    There's no real word for yes or no in Irish.

    Some use "ta" or "sea" (those are missing fadas) but those translate closer to "it is"

    So if you go to a Gaeltacht area you will hear native Irish speakers chatting in Irish to one another but saying "ya" or "yes" every few seconds because it's a useful word and how the hell did we not have a work for it for so long

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    #5

    Dutch speaking person here. We have loads of loanwords from English. Even verbs. The interesting part is that the Dutch conjugation rules still apply for verbs loaned from English.

    "I deleted" becomes "Ik deletete"

    "I've gamed all day" becomes "Ik heb de hele dag gegamed"

    Not a verb but "The backed-up data" becomes "De geback-upte gegevens"

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    #6

    Sorry,' 'ok,' and 'cool' are the most common ones in Czech. Even my grandma uses those.

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    #7

    Well, I live in Greece and we use A LOT of English words. But, the weirdest thing I've noticed (especially from teenagers) is to go to a tourist area, mostly beaches, and try to act like tourists. So, we are just walking on the streets having a high-level conventions in our fake-a$$-British-accents.

    -No Mr. Stathakopoulos I'm British. Please repsect my accent

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    #8

    In German, the list is as long as the day is... also long? F***, sorry, f*** you, hello, good morning, b****, bye, what's sup?, and cheers just to name a few. Also, a lot of people just kinda swap in the direct English translations for words to sound young and trendy. Nouns like pants, bag, backpack, bike, ect are popular as well as germanized verbs like "collecten", "up-picken", "texten", ect.

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    #9

    In France, we use the word "weekend". We literally don't have a French word for it. So we just use the English one.

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    #10

    Visiting a girlfriend in Spain, her friends loved saying "Kill It" when finishing a drink.

    To them it was the funniest way to take shots.

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    #11

    In my line of work as a programmer the average Dutch sentence is 35% English vocabulary and when I speak with friends it's 20%.

    I do just really use interjections like "though", "I guess", "like", "I mean" in my normal Dutch together with a lot of nouns and verbs that have a perfectly cromulent Dutch alternative—this is not that odd for Dutch speakers.

    Like I would absolutely just say something like this in "Dutch": "Yeah, ik ben nu bij den final stages dier page; ik moet nog even de shadows afwerken en wat eye detail voltooien en dan is het wel done, I guess.".

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    #12

    In Argentina a one night stand is a "touch and go"

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    #13

    Hindi and Marathi: we use tons of English words in daily language. There are many things for which only the English word is in use, because the vernacular word either is outdated or doesn’t exist. Simple examples: “table”, “light/bulb”, any computer related noun: speaker, keyboard, etc. Many English verbs are also freely and very commonly adapted into Hindi sentences, eg. “Maine usko help kiya” (I helped him) would be considered a valid Hinglish sentence.

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    #14

    The French say: le selfie le feedback le brunch There’s more but that’s all I can think of just now

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    #15

    American but I know Japanese people say "bye-bye" and "okay"

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    #16

    One English word recently adopted by Russian is "fake". It's used as a noun, not an adjective (e.g. "this story turned out to be a fake"). Another word increasingly used by Russians online is "hater".

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    #17

    Talking with a portuguese man the other day, apparently they call bowling by its English name. There is a word for it in portuguese, Boliche, But he had never heard it before

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    #18

    I'm Dutch and a translator and man, so many English words have been integrated into Dutch that it is hard to tell sometimes where one language ends and the other begins. Especially in corporate speak on the management level, it's basically 90% English.

    De business case over de accountability van de return on investment was een sterke driver van year over year groei van de service provider.

    Just threw some words together that might not make absolute sense, it's more of an illustration to show how much English I deal with in what is supposed to be an English text.

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    #19

    I'm Croatian and the English words that we use a lot are 'random,' 'accidentally,' and 'officially

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    #20

    Brazilian Portuguese:

    The word "site " as in website.

    Ok.

    Delete (with Portuguese conjugation)

    Monetize (also with portuguese conjugation)

    Flaps (of airplanes)

    We call flashdrives exclusively as pendrives.

    Notebook/Laptop

    Do tennis and jeans count?

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    #21

    Im korea there are a few english words used but they rarely have the same exact meaning. For example, “panty” is used to mean underwear but it is a gender neutral term (essentially what underwear is in english). There are some words are that are used as slang like “some”. A “some” relationship is essentially when two people are interested in each other but haven’t had the girlfriend/boyfriend talk yet.

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    #22

    Filipino here. Everyone calls you ma'am/sir

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    #23

    I'm a french speaker and here in switzerland I hear a lot of english words as well!

    • cringe • awkward • sorry • bye • cool • fast food/junk food • design • game art/digital art, speed paint • cute • creepy

    And a lot of other! In fact a lot of young people use to use english sentences for being cool!

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    #24

    Pakistani here, pretty much every other sentence in Urdu spoken by people that live in urban areas has at least some English in it. Sometimes whole sentences, sometimes just a swear word. Mainly because of two reasons: we (along with India and Bangladesh) used to be a British colony until 1947, and also American media influence is pretty much everywhere.

    Fridge, light, table, phone, internet, pistol, shirt, pants, shorts (we use the British "knickers"), school, college, backpack (bag), camera, movie etc. This list could pretty much go on for paragraphs.

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    #25

    Italian here, we (mis)use A LOT: from cocktail to smartphone, freezer, shampoo, jobs act (kill me!!), exit poll, welfare, startup, manager, full time, freelance, CEO (no one knows what it stands for), target, brand, makeup, outfit, playback, live, teenager, ...

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    #26

    There are lots of English words used in Italian, sometimes idiosyncratically: 'public relations,' 'flash' (for USB drive), 'feeling' (for romantic chemistry)

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    #27

    Many swear words: F***, S***, Oh my god, Shut up, Come on, B****, Motherf***** and F*** off are common. We also use stuff like: nice, cool, gay, straight up, trash, stuff, dope, cops etc. the list is way too long. But I don't like to use English words and «Germanize» them. I find that cringy.

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    #28

    A lot of curse words, obviously. I also use slang that I would never use in an English conversation like saying lol(it got obsolete and uncool very fast in English but stuck with me and many memesters including me and my friends in Russia).

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    #29

    Alota Russian: f***, sorry, hi, bye, ROFL, lol, ok, prank, flex, what's up, s***, b****, guy, okurrrr, oh my god

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    #30

    Iranian here. Lot of curse words, like f***, b****, goddammit, etc.

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    Note: this post originally had 45 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.

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