Signification
Indicating a small quantity of something.
Contexte culturel
The phrase is a key part of 'Anade'. Even if someone is an expert, they will say they know 'nee-nee-pal' to avoid appearing boastful. In tea shops, specifying 'nee-nee-pal' for condensed milk or sugar is how you customize your drink to be less sweet. When negotiating, saying a price is 'only a little' high is a way to start a polite bargain. When making offerings (Dana), people might modestly say their offering is 'nee-nee-pal' regardless of its size, to focus on the intention rather than the material value.
The Modesty Shield
Always use this when complimented on your Burmese. It makes you sound much more culturally fluent than saying 'Thank you'.
Don't over-reduplicate
Saying 'Nee nee nee nee' doesn't mean 'very little'; it just sounds like you're stuttering.
Signification
Indicating a small quantity of something.
The Modesty Shield
Always use this when complimented on your Burmese. It makes you sound much more culturally fluent than saying 'Thank you'.
Don't over-reduplicate
Saying 'Nee nee nee nee' doesn't mean 'very little'; it just sounds like you're stuttering.
Portion Control
If you don't say 'nee-nee-pal' at a Burmese dinner, your plate will never be empty!
Teste-toi
Fill in the blank to say 'I only know a little Burmese'.
ကျွန်တော် ဗမာစကား _______ တတ်တယ်။
'နည်းနည်းပဲ' is the correct phrase for 'just a little'. 'အများကြီး' means 'a lot' and 'အရမ်း' means 'very'.
Which is the most polite way to ask for a small amount of water?
ရေ _______ ပေးပါ။
'နည်းနည်းပဲ' limits the amount politely. 'အများကြီး' asks for a lot, and 'မပေးနဲ့' means 'don't give'.
Match the phrase to the situation.
You are full but your host offers more curry.
Saying 'just a little' is the polite way to accept a small amount when you are nearly full.
🎉 Score : /3
Aides visuelles
Banque d exercices
3 exercicesကျွန်တော် ဗမာစကား _______ တတ်တယ်။
'နည်းနည်းပဲ' is the correct phrase for 'just a little'. 'အများကြီး' means 'a lot' and 'အရမ်း' means 'very'.
ရေ _______ ပေးပါ။
'နည်းနည်းပဲ' limits the amount politely. 'အများကြီး' asks for a lot, and 'မပေးနဲ့' means 'don't give'.
You are full but your host offers more curry.
Saying 'just a little' is the polite way to accept a small amount when you are nearly full.
🎉 Score : /3
Questions fréquentes
5 questionsYes, but adding 'pal' makes it sound more complete and polite in most situations.
Absolutely. It is a neutral and respectful phrase.
Use 'နည်းနည်းလေးပဲ' (Nee-nee-lay-pal). The 'lay' adds a diminutive effect.
In this context, yes. It limits the quantity to exactly what you specified.
Say 'နည်းနည်းလောက် ထပ်ပေးပါ' (Nee-nee-lout htap-pay-par).
Expressions liées
နည်းနည်းပါးပါး
similarA little bit of this and that
အနည်းငယ်
specialized formA small amount (formal)
နည်းနည်းလောက်
similarAbout a little
အများကြီး
contrastA lot
