"It was nothing" - "Don´t mention it"

Question

These are, perhaps, my favorite phrases. In English the most common response to "thank you" is "you're welcome" (I use it many times every day). However, every time I say it I am aware that in most (all) languages other than English this expression makes no sense (in this context). "bienvenido/bienvenu/benvenuto" (in Spanish/French/Italian) make perfect sense when greeting the arrival of someone but makes no sense, otherwise.

In Vietnamese, one can say "khom co chi" and in Chinese "Bu co chi" (both of which mean, basically, "It was nothing"). In Spanish "de nada", in French "de rien", in Italian, "prego" is most common (but I think, "de niente" or "non fa niente" are also possible. In German, on usually says "bitte shoen" but I suspect that that there are alternatives. In modern Greek, "para kalo" (again, I suspect that there are alternatives).

The only phrase I know in Arabic for this situation is "afwan" and Lovely-Lovely assures me that it does carry the sense of "It was nothing" / "Don't mention it." However, I also know that there about as many dialects of Arabic as there are countries and each has its own peculiar expressions. Thus, I continue to hope that the possibility exists in Arabic (it has, after all, many flowery courtesy formulas).

Since our members include speakers of many diverse languages, I would like to know if there are other languages which have expressions similar (in meaning) to "it was nothing" that can be (or are frequently) used in this context.

• Samdie typo in french: de rien :) - FELIZ77 Dec 2, 2011
• 7th line down - FELIZ77 Dec 2, 2011

Answer 1

In Portuguese (Brazilian) they also say; ''de nada'' but the word de is pronounced quite differently from the Spanish.

de = is more like a soft jee sound I cannot think of anything like it in Spanish or English The nearest sound is like the French sound of the alphabet j but a bit stronger than the french j

g h i j

• It sounds a lot like the dge in judge to me. - webdunce Dec 2, 2011
• Thanks Feliz. I knew "obrigado" but never how to respond to it. - samdie Dec 3, 2011

Answer 2

I use the dreaded "No problem!" all the time.

• It's probably better than the ever more common "sure" or "uh-huh." - Izanoni1 Dec 2, 2011
• Actually that fits with the general idea of denying/downplaying the importance of the favor. Same underlying concept. - samdie Dec 3, 2011