Transported to a PLACE with unfamiliar language, what few VERBS you need to learn first to talk to the people?

Question

The place or situation could be anywhere where you are surrounded with people who speaks a totally different language.

You can't just browse the translation book/dictionary from A-Z fast enough to learn every verb you need to communicate with the people, so what few verbs (or action words) you need to learn fast to communicate with them. (They could be French/Chinese/German or Martian people... you know what I mean).

Answer 1

You are on the right track.
These are the words (not all verbs) that are useful in all languages. I used to travel extensively and didn't speak much of whatever language was local...from French to Chinese...but these words were golden wherever I was:

Hello
good morning
good afternoon
good evening
Yes
No
Please
Thank you
You are welcome
How much?
numbers one through 10

Verbs and how to say them:
To truly learn the language, and fast, learn the verbs and how they change depending on who is talking about whom or when...like...

English - the verb "to see":
I/you see
She/he/it sees
We/they see

So, learn the pronouns (I, she, he, it, we, they, you, y'all) in whatever language, then the common verbs:

to eat
to drink
to walk
to see (view, look)

Also, learn the irregular verbs first, these are different from the standard verbs so they have unique tenses.

The regular verbs are easier and there are more of them so learn these next.

For example, in Spanish...

Regular verbs ending in -ar, -ir, -er have fairly standard tenses and plurals...

Hope that helps.

Answer 2

Well, I think that this depends on the language we are talking about, because not all tha languages use exactly the same way to describe something....
BUT!
I guess you can start with "be" and "have" and then try "go", "do", "speak", "eat", "drink", "want" in the order that these things are essential to you... =)
Then,or before that, I don't know, you should learn the question words,"what,who,where,when,why,how" which you will definately use no matter where you are..!

You should also know the word "help" just in case...!!! ;)

But to do all these, i guess you first have to learn all the geetings,and thank you's etc.....

If you don't have a time limit, it can be pretty easy to learn the language especially if you hear the natives speak all the time...
When there's a will, there's a way!!! =)

Answer 3

In English: to be, to have, to be able (can, could. etc), to make, to do, to go... (in that order.) However, this is not the case in all languages, e.g. Russian often doesn't use the verb 'to be' where English does: It is on the table = it on table; it also ignores 'to have' in constructions like I have a car = belonging to me is car. So, difficult to generalise - not all languages are constructed like English.

Answer 4

the verb to be is one of the first you need to learn. theres also to go, and to have. i think those are the 3 most important, those are usually the first they teach anyways.
[also how to say your name and where your from and to say i dont speak bla bla do you speak bla bla, lol] :D

Answer 5

Here's my two cents:
to understand
to speak
to know
to go
to want
to need