How to ask for silk in other languages - French, German, Spanish and more

 

My red blouse and green tunic top have labels saying silk.

Do you read labels? I do. Some words are easy to translate and recognize. For example, on silk clothes, the word for silk.

The closest languages to English are Scandinavian languages.  Silke in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. Icelandic is silki. I don't often have need of Icelandic, nor Igbo, which is silki.  Esperanto is silko.

French is soie. 

German is Seide. Remember that Germans use capital letters for nouns. Spanish and Portuguese are close in spelling to the German, both seda. 

Italians change the d to a t. Sete is Italian for silk. 

Indonesia is sutra. Malay is sutera. 

Is this silk?

I would like silk.

Do you have any silk?

Where can I buy silk?

Cotton.

Wool.

Synthetic.

Polycotton.

drip-dry.

hand wash

machine washable

dry clean only

A different colour

Est-ce de la soie?
J'aimerais de la soie.
Avez-vous de la soie?
Où puis-je acheter de la soie?
Coton.
La laine.
Synthétique.
Poly coton.
égoutter.
lavage des mains
lavable en machine
nettoyage à sec uniquement
Une couleur différente

I would translate a few phrases differently. I would say, 

Est-ce que c'est de la soie?

ou est-ce que je peux acheter ...

really silk - vraiment de la soie

real silk - veritable soie

German

Ist es Seide?
Ich hätte gerne Seide.
Hast du Seide?
Wo kann ich Seide kaufen?
Baumwolle.
Wolle.
Synthetik.
Poly Baumwolle.
abfließen.
Händewaschen
Waschmaschinenfest
Nur chemische Reinigung
Eine andere Farbe
echte Seide
wirklich Seide
echte Seide

SPANISH

Es seda
Quisiera seda.
Tienes seda
¿Dónde puedo comprar seda?
Algodón. (cotton)
La lana.
Sintético.
Algodon poli.
fluir fuera.

lavado a mano/
lavar a mano
Lavable en la lavadora (machine wash)
Solo limpieza química
Otro color
seda real
realmente seda
seda real

Useful websites

https://www.indifferentlanguages.com/words/silk

polyglot page in facebook

https://www.facebook.com/polyglotclub.world/

About the Author

Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, fashionista. Please share links to your favourite posts or one or more of the blogs

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

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