# Spanish phrase help: "Could I have...?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 15, 2004, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-phrase-help-could-i-have/279978 "2004-12-15T15:34:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-phrase-help-could-i-have/279978/21 "2004-12-17T05:37:12Z")
> [@InvisibleWombat](#): > > We do? > > I usually say, “May I have the…” or “I’ll have the…” or “I’d like the…” > > “Could I” just sounds wrong in this context. You’re asking (or telling) the server what to bring you, not checking to see whether you could have it. Ever heard the term “idiomatic expression”? ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-phrase-help-could-i-have/279978/22 "2004-12-17T07:15:42Z")
I asked exactly this question of some native speakers in Mexico a few years back. Their answer was, it’s perfectly OK to say, “Me da \…por favor”. The “Usted” is of course implied at the beginning. ---
**Author:** ![Asteroide](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@Asteroide](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asteroide)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-phrase-help-could-i-have/279978/23 "2004-12-17T09:26:49Z")
> [@The Gaspode](#): > > It _would_ be considered bad manners to order a pint sized beer. Only _guiris_ do that.) Do I dare ask what a _guiri_ is ? ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-phrase-help-could-i-have/279978/24 "2004-12-17T09:47:41Z")
Thanks for all the help, everyone. I guess what I really wanted was some kind of “verbal padding” to help me sound like a better speaker of the language, but I guess that’s not always needed. (_Guiri_=not too polite word for “tourist”, I believe, although oddly I think it literally means “policeman”. Not too sure what the connection is.) ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-phrase-help-could-i-have/279978/25 "2004-12-17T09:51:49Z")
> [@Asteroide](#): > > Do I dare ask what a _guiri_ is ? Spaniard version of “gringo”. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-phrase-help-could-i-have/279978/26 "2004-12-17T11:09:34Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > BTW, **Gaspode** ’s description applies in Spain. We Latin-Am guys have a lot of fun listening to/reading Spanish media just for the sake of the idioms. I know. And they have fun listening to you guys, including calling you “Sudacos”. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-phrase-help-could-i-have/279978/27 "2004-12-17T13:13:05Z")
The point in all those sentences listed in the original post is that they use either usted or the subjective, both of which are structures that do not exist in English _per se_. Spanish verbs have special forms both for polite address and for the subjunctive, whereas in English you mark those by adding extra words. If you said “me traes”, that is impolite; you could say it to your brother but you wouldn’t normally say it to a waiter. If you say “me trae”, it’s perfectly polite. The me trae version translates as “may I have a bottle of water?”, me traes would be “hey dude bring me a bottle of water” Spanish from Spain here. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-phrase-help-could-i-have/279978/28 "2004-12-17T13:21:22Z")
Sudacas, not sudacos 🙂 And in these times of political correctness it’s come to be considered a word to be avoided, but actually most people just use it as a shorthand version of _suda_meri_ca_no. And guiri is a word that comes from the time of Nappy’s invasions. It was initially used to mean those who hailed the invaders as “liberators from the tiranny of monarchy”, moved fast to mean “collaborators”. Hence the first police connection. During the Carlista wars, the Carlistas referred to the government as guiris (i.e., accused them of being sold to the newfangled ideas from France - police connection number two) and the guiris called the Carlistas carcas (short for “carcamal”, meaning old fashioned). Nowadays carca means “old fashioned” or “politically right wing + religious”, depending on context; guiri just means “foreigner with a lighter skin than me” 🙂 You don’t call sudacas, chinos, moros or negros guiris. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-phrase-help-could-i-have/279978/29 "2004-12-17T13:31:57Z")
Hence “gringo”. And I _knew_ “sudacas”. That’s what I get for not speaking a language for 10 years. :smack: Actually, one of the most beautiful thing about Spanish is how expressive, flexible, flowery - and loaded with swearwords - it is. Maybe it’s an inheritance from the Moors, but no one but arabs can swear as poetically as a Spaniard. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-phrase-help-could-i-have/279978/30 "2004-12-17T18:56:53Z")
> [@Asteroide](#): > > 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. > > . . . > > 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. Really? People frowned on “quisiera”? It’s possible it’s more used in Latin America (which in a lot of respects tends to preserve older Spanish usages.) That surprises me, though. The general principle that overly polite phrases can (oddly) sound extremely rude is right on target, anyway. It’d come across as creepy and weird if a man, on first acquaintance with a woman, got down on his knees and kissed her hand, too. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-phrase-help-could-i-have/279978/31 "2004-12-20T00:52:18Z")
You can’t always translate everything literally. English politeness don’t translate well into Spanish. Actually you can politely request somebody do something in Spanish without ever using the words “por favor”, intonation and wording can do the same job, or better. “Tráigame una cerveza” can sound rude or polite depending on intonation alone. Although any two Spanish-speakers from anywhere will understand each other, wording of the same phrase may vary (and still convey the same meaning). And yes, everybody speaks Spanish funny and have an accent, but us. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-phrase-help-could-i-have/279978.md?page=1)