Restaurant practice.

Question

I asked for two sodas to go when we were done eating:

¿Podemos tener dos refrescos para llevar?

How did they know that I didn't want to 'wear' the drinks??

Answer 1

¿Podemos tener dos refrescos para llevar?

Oh oh!... that's a literal translation of an idiomatic expression, because if you think of it, "Can I have...?" can be interpreted in a very stupid way if you read it literally. "Of course you can! You can have anything you want, as long as you pay for it". It doesn't work in Spanish (or at least, not where I come from). "¿Podemos tener..." sounds like "Can we own...?"

We say "¿Nos puede dar/poner/... dos refrescos para llevar"?

How did they know that I didn't want to 'wear' the drinks??

Common sense? You don't normally wear sodas, do you? If you asked something like "Can I have the bill?" in a restaurant, how do they know that you don't mean someone called Bill, you are not asking for paper note, you are not asking for a law, you are not asking for a poster? Without common sense, communication is impossible, and English is renown for having thousands of words with multiple meanings. If you can cope in English, surely you can do it in Spanish too.

Thanks for the advice! And I was being sarcastic about "the wearing" of the drinks. - Tosh, Aug 28, 2011

I thought so, but you asked anyway. - lazarus1907, Aug 28, 2011

Answer 2

Keep it simple....

Por favor, dos refrescos para llevar.

Me gustaría dos refrescos para llevar.

Me da dos refrescos para llevar.

Good suggestions, but please be careful with your punctuation. "¿Me da...?" - lazarus1907, Aug 28, 2011

Thanks, but that was actually a statement, not a question. Although I think turning into a request is probably a lot more polite. - rodneyp, Aug 28, 2011

Answer 3

Tosh ,for what it's worth, I thought this was a fair enough question. I got the answer also .Thanks and Buena suerte.

Answer 4

"Can I have?" really means you are holding something you think might be a can in your hand but you aren't really sure. . .all other grammatical interpretations are incorrect.

Answer 5

I know, but knowing that "llevar" also means "to wear", it sounded funny to me when I asked. I just pictured her dumping them on me. LOL.

But I did ask correctly? Or was there a better way?

well l like saying ''para beber'' it sounds better to me tosh ;) - 00b6f46c, Aug 28, 2011

Even if I wanted to specify that I wanted them to go? - Tosh, Aug 28, 2011

Answer 6

Hmmm probably because people don't wear drinks