In English, when ordering food etc, we normally say “Could I have…?”
Is there a similar “polite” phrase I should be using in Spanish? If there is, we weren’t taught it at school — we were just taught to say “Un xxxxxx, por favor”, or possibly “Me gustaria un xxxxx”.
Neither of these seem particularly satisfactory - say, for instance, if I’m sat at a restaurant table and I want another bottle of water. Just saying “A bottle of water, please” or “I’d like a bottle of water” seems a bit rude to me. What I’d like to say is “Could I have a bottle of water?”. What is the best way to phrase this?
When I was in Mexico I asked a guy (an American), whom I’d got talking to. He said the phrase to use is “Me trae…” (not sure if that’s spelt right). That seems even more abrupt: “Bring me…!”.
So what do Spanish speakers say in these situations, please?
Similarly in French - would one use “Puis-je avoir” in this stuation?
Sometimes Europeans seem haughty and rude to us in such settings, simply because there is no English equivalent to what we would say to someone or would expect to have said to us.
Relax and say “Un xxx, por favor.” When in Rome/Spain, and all that.
I was going to say that this sounds like a rather clumsy construction, but then i noticed your location and figured that you probably know better than i do.
Still, neither of my Spanish professors (who were both from Spain) would have used that construction. They always made the same point Happy Scrappy Hero Pup made—that a request that might sound somewhat abrupt or rude to an English speaker is perfectly acceptable in Spanish. While the use of the imperative in English is usually avoided, or softened with a “please,” my profs made clear that this was not the case in Spanish, and that use of the imperative is considered perfectly normal.
One is free to use “por favor” and “gracias” as needed, I’d assume. On top of that, body language, facial expression, and tone of voice are assuredly important in conveying politeness.
IMHO, “Me gustaria una cerveza, por favor” translates into a polite English sentence which I’m sure Ms. Manners would approve: “I would like a beer, please.”
Let me say before replying that i should not be considered the final authority on colloquial Spanish. I majored in Spanish at university, and did very well, but i’ve never lived in a Spanish-speaking country, and my main experience with the language is in reading newspaper and journal articles and book chapters. Not exactly good sources for everyday colloquial and idiomatic speech.
The way you have written your sentence, it sounds not so much like a request as a question about someone’s actions. It sounds like “(Do you/does s/he) bring me another bottle of water?”, which is a little awkward. In this case, my professors would have recommended saying something like:
“Traeme otra botella de agua” or “Traigame otra botella de agua.”
The latter is the formal construction of the imperative, and would probably be the best one to use when speaking to a waiter. If you really want to turn it into a question, rather than using the imperative, maybe it’s best to try something like:
“¿Peude/s traerme otra botella de agua?”, or even “¿Podria/s traerme…?” That is, “Can you bring me…?” or “Could you bring me…?”
Again, i should note that both my profs were from Spain (one from Madrid, the other from Barcelona), and that colloquial and idiomatic usage can be quite different in Latin America.
Absolutely. If you use the imperative in a gruff and unfriendly manner, it’s probably going to be interpreted as rudeness, even in Spain. It never hurts to use “por favor” and “gracias,” although my Spanish profs told me that “please” is used far more often in English than in spanish.
And the “Me gustaria…” construction is also perfectly acceptable and, i believe, quite commonly used in some places.
“Quisiera” (imperfect subjunctive of “querer”) is a good polite way to ask for things. As in “Quisiera una botella de agua”.
Sales Pitch:
“Quisiera” Combines the grace of “podría Ud. hacerme el favor de…” with the convenience and speed of “tráigame”. That’s “quisiera”… available now in the Spanish-speaking area of your choice.
Some languages don’t have ‘please may I have…?’, or at least they do, but it doesn’t carry the implication that you will follow through with ordering it (it’s perceived more as an availability query) - I fell somewhat foul of this in Denmark (or was it Sweden?) - I asked the waiter (in English, to my shame), ‘Please can I have <whatever it was>’ and he answered ‘Yes, you can’, then stood waiting for me to order it.
In (most areas of) Spain, it is not considered in anyway rude or impolite to use either *“Tráigame…” “Me trae…” or “Para mi, ….” * when ordering food or drinks.
If it troubles you, use “Quiera / Quisiera…” with interjections of *“por favor” * and “gracias” as needed, but generally they are considered unnecessary.
“Me trae, por favor, una…?” = just fine as long as the “por favor” phrase is there.
“Me trae” is not, BTW, imperative mode – imperative mode would be “Traigame una…”, and if the “por favor” is inserted, it’s polite.
“Me traería…” = “If you would bring me…”, would be in the conditional (aka “potential”) mode
Other Alternatives:
“Me podría traer una…” = Could you bring me a…
“Me puede traer…” = Can you bring me a…
The “Me trae, por favor,” construction is idiomatic, using the present indicative + “please” in order to form a polite equivalent to imperative. The thing is, the “could I have” construction in English is itself idiomatic. It does not and need not translate directly either as phrase or as concept, as remarked earlier it sounds more like a factual question as to whether you are allowed to have a drink. Think of it: we ARE in a restaurant/bar. We ARE there to order and buy drinks and/or food. They expect to sell us drinks and food we order. We know that, they know that. All we have to do is be respectful in addressing each other.
Heck, in English, once I ascertain that the menu item IS avaiable tonight, I tell the wait staff: “I will have the…”, not ask them if I could have it.
*¿Me trae . . . * is perfectly polite, but I got the most use of out Quisiera . . . and Me gustaría . . .. Perhaps we’re a little less assertive about our restaurant orders in English, if those feel rude to you. But I’ve never had a waiter yell at me or throw something in disgust. (I think "I’d like . . . " is my usual way or ordering in English, too, though.)
What’s polite in one language or culture isn’t the same as what’s polite in another, and English seems to go overboard in this respect. If you start using those constructions in Spanish or French you end up sounding at best uncertain, and at worst ironic/critical.
When using “quisiera” (“I would have liked”) in Spain, I’ve been told to cut it out - that it sounds medieval. If you use question-type constructions for service requests in France, you might get a strange response.
“Est-ce-que je peux avoir une bière svp ?”
“Ben ouais. J’suis barman, non ?”
I guess what I’m saying is that you can piss people off by being “too polite”.
I recommend the tried and true “Dos cervezas, por favor.”
In a more general way, the whole “polite” thing can come across as being kind of oily or hypocritical, and cultural rules do vary wildly in this regard.
Translated word for word, Spaniards might seem extremely rude to Americans. Colloquial Spanish is saturated with expletives, mostly of a sexual nature. I almost fell out of my chair when hearing my the GF say: “¡Pero coño, abuela!” - roughly “What the fuck, granma!” (although coño is from Latin cunnus and of course related to cunt.
When Cela won the Nobel Prize in literature, the Spanish version of Amtrak, RENFE, published a full page ad in most national newspapers, saying: “¡Coño, por fin!” - roughly “About fucking time!” A reference to Cela’s well known salty language.
With that out of the way, the perfect way to order a beer in a bar in Madrid is:
"¡Oye, dame una caña!"
Which translates as “Listen up, gimme a beer”, but wouldn’t be considered rude at all. (Caña is a glass of roughly 12oz size. It would be considered bad manners to order a pint sized beer. Only guiris do that.)
Someone had an automated translation up there, with glass translated as cristal. That’s wrong. cristal is glass, but a glass is un vaso, a wineglass is una copa, a highball glass is un tubo.
Crystal is vidrio BTW (and to add to confusion, a cigarette is un cigaro, whereas a cigar is un puro.)
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