Informal requests, like asking for sugar!
Hello, I am planning a trip to Honduras and trying to prepare by practicing some phrases that I will most likely need. I plan to spend time with a family at an orphanage, so I want to learn the most common ways to make informal, polite requests. Like, if I wanted to ask for some sugar, what is the nicest, informal way to do it? I think I would say:
"¿Podría darme un poco de azúcar, por favor?"
However, I recently listened to a Spanish learning podcast which said to use something like:
"¿Me das un poco de azúcar, por favor?"
Could the two phrases be used equally well, or is one more common in Central America? Finally, in English, we often say, "Can I have some sugar please?" which translates as,"Puedo tener algun azúcar, por favor?" Would this sound sort of funny in Spanish? Muchas gracias!
5 Answers
First, a clarification about the use of "podría". Podría is the verb "poder", translatable as "can" / "could", "may", "be able", depending on the context. The desinence "ía" is what gives its conditional conjugation. But you wouldn't necessarily use this verb to ask something in the conditional mode:
"¿Podría darme una servilleta?" corresponds exactly to:
"Could I have a napkin?" or "May I have a napkin?" or more literally "Could you give me a napkin?"
But there is stil to consider the equivalent to:
"Would you give me a napkin?" which is:
"¿Me daría una servilleta?" where the conditional form is given by the desinence "ía" added to the verb "dar" = "to give"
One major difference between English and Spanish is that the latter is strongly desinencial, so it doesn't need auxiliary verbs to construct tenses, as English does (in this case, "would"). Now, this conditional form, ommiting the verb "poder" ("podría", or "podrías" in a colloquial context) is by large the preferred usage. Still, the form preceded by the verb poder is not uncommon, as a way to emphasize politeness.
Also, you can chose to ommit the conditional conjugation:
"¿Me da una servilleta?" The approximate English correspondance would be: "Do you give me a napkin?", which would not be used in that situation. Now, in Spanish, this option is at least as much used as the conditional one, if not more. This one sounds closer to the imperative form, but it's not it (what would be "Deme una servilleta").
A slight and curious difference between the usage of the conditional and non-conditional form for making a request:
"¿Me da una servilleta, por favor?" and "¿Me daría una servilleta?" sound similarly polite. If you ommit "por favor" (please) in the first case, you risk to sound a bit impolite (obviously, depending on your general attitude and tone).
So, we can configure here an increasing scale of politenes:
- Deme una servilleta. (imperative: mostly rude)
- Deme una servilleta, por favor = ¿Me da una servilleta? (not particularly kind, but OK, in the limit depending on you tone)
- ¿Me da una servilleta, por favor? = ¿Me daría una servilleta? (polite enough, most used)
- ¿Me daría una servilleta, por favor? = ¿Podría darme una servilleta? (particularly polite)
- ¿Me podría dar una servilleta, por favor? (most polite)
Please take in account that not always the more polite the better, specially in very colloquial situations where the excess of politeness would sound affectionate or snob. To walk in the safe side, always use options 3 or 4 and you'll do OK.
I would chose formal and informal, because you can be polite or impolite in both contexts.
All the examples mentioned above are constructed in the formal style, which means, supposing the formal "you" = "usted". To turn them into the informal style, you only need to change the desinence to the informal verbal inflexions:
deme -> dame; da -> das; daría -> darías; podría -> podrías.
Please observe that the imperative form "deme una servilleta" would sound rude unless there is a context justifying that usage, such a very vertical relationship like in the army, or in an emergency when you need to do things fast. However, the imperative will no be necessarily impolite in a very informal context, typically at home, provided the tone and attitude is agreeable.
¿Puedes pasarmélo, por favor?
if you say in spanish: puedo tener una servilleta? it sounds a kind of funny. I am not sure but maybe the funny translation into english would go: Can you let me have a napkin?... how does it sound?
srovietico wrote:
if you say in spanish: puedo tener una servilleta? it sounds a kind of funny.
I agree. The verb 'poder' translates loosely into English as 'can' but more precisely as as 'to be able to'.
So in the context of this question, it may sound to a native Spanish speaking person as 'Am I able to have a napkin?'
In the long run it would be best to learn other ways of asking for things. In the short term, a native speaker will still probably give you a napkin. 
If someone with a foreign accent asked me in English 'Am I able to have a napkin?' I would hand him one, then ask where he was from, then commend him that he speaks English, and hope we could become friends. 
I just thought of something else--in my original question, that was very bad English on my part! Even though people say, "Can I (have something)? when they ask for something in English all the time, it is not proper! It is actually correct to say, "May I?" Wow, my grade school teachers are haunting me now.
