5.3 In a Café — Epoché
What you will be able to do Order a drink and a meal, and ask for the bill. Use the polite verb for eating and drinking instead of the blunt ones. Ask a price and answer an offer. Say please to a man, to a woman and to a group. Read a menu heading and know what kind of list it is. Prerequisites : 5.2 and the nationality ending A café is the first place a visitor has to say something that is not about himself, and it is a good place to start because the transactions are short and the vocabulary is finite. Nothing in this lesson is grammatically new: every sentence below is a construction you already have, and what is new is which words go in it. One habit of Arabic politeness runs through the lesson and is worth naming at the start. Where English uses the plain verbs eat and drink in a restaurant, Arabic prefers a verb meaning to take or to have, and the plain verbs sound abrupt in that setting. English does the same thing when it says will you have something rather than will you eat something, and the instinct transfers if you let it. The dialogue Two friends and a waiter لنخرج لتناول مشروب. [1] I suggest we go out for a drink. أفضل القهوة. [2] I prefer coffee. أين الشاي بالحليب؟ [3] Where is the tea with milk? تريد ماء. [4] She wants water. لحم أو سمك؟ [5] Meat or fish? دجاج، من فضلك. [6] Chicken, please. جيد، شكرا. [7] Good, thanks. Paying الفاتورة من فضلك. [8] The check, please. سأدفع الفاتورة. [9] I'll pay the bill. هل عندك الفاتورة؟ [10] Do you have a receipt? عفوا، كم الساعة؟ [11] Excuse me, what time is it? شكرا جزيلا! [12] Thanks a lot! The same lines with the vowels supplied With the vowels supplied English What it does لِنَخْرُج لِتَنَاوُل مَشْرُوب. I suggest we go out for a drink. proposes going out, with the polite verb أُفَضِّل الْقَهْوَة. I prefer coffee. states a preference أَيْنَ الشََّاي بِالْحَلِيب؟ Where is the tea with milk? asks where an order has got to تُرِيد مَاء. She wants water. orders for somebody else لَحْم أَوْ سَمَك؟ Meat or fish? offers a choice of two دَجَاج، مِنْ فَضْلِك. Chicken, please. the shortest possible order جَيِّد، شُكْراً. Good, thanks. accepts what has arrived الْفَاتُورَة مِنْ فَضْلِك. The check, please. asks for the bill سَأَدْفَع الْفَاتُورَة. I'll pay the bill. offers to pay, with the future prefix of 4.6 هَلْ عِنْدَك الْفَاتُورَة؟ Do you have a receipt? asks for a receipt, with the have construction of 3.12 عَفْواً، كَمْ السََّاعَة؟ Excuse me, what time is it? opens a request to a stranger شُكْراً جَزِيلاً! Thanks a lot! closes the transaction The pattern The polite verb The first line of the dialogue uses a form VI verb meaning to take or to partake, and it is the verb a waiter will use to you and the one to use back. Its plain relatives, the verbs for eating and drinking that you learned in 2.3, are perfectly good words but belong to a blunter register. The same verb serves for food and for drink, so it saves a choice. It is followed directly by what is taken, with no preposition. Ordering with one word The sixth line is the shortest order the language allows: the name of the dish, a comma, and the politeness formula. No verb at all, and nothing missing. That is worth knowing because a learner reaches for a full sentence with a verb of wanting, and produces something correct but heavier than a native speaker would say. The bare noun with the formula is normal and polite. Asking a price, asking for the bill Two constructions do this. The first is the question word for how many with the single-letter preposition of 3.7 fused to it, which you met in 3.13, and it is followed by the thing: for how much the shirt. The second is the bare noun for the bill with the politeness formula, which is the eighth line. It is the ordinary way to ask in a café, and a full sentence would again be heavier than necessary. The two words for a bill One is an Italian borrowing and the other is the native noun from the root for counting, which also gave the word for a computer in 3.1. Both are used, and the borrowed one is commoner in a shop while the native one is commoner in a restaurant and in banking. Either will be understood anywhere. Saying it politely Change the ending of please. The formula is a preposition, a noun meaning favour, and a possessive ending of 3.6. To a man the ending is one thing, to a woman another, to a group a third. This is the single most frequently used ending in the language and the one a learner most often gets wrong. Answer an offer with the fixed phrase. When somebody offers you food, the answer is not simply yes or no. Accepting is done with the formula in the seventh line; declining is done with a phrase of thanks that means, roughly, may your hands be blessed, and the thanks itself carries the refusal. Expect to argue about the bill. Offering to pay for the whole table, as in the ninth line, is the normal opening move rather than a grand gesture, and the other person will offer as well. The exchange is expected and going through with it is not rude. The excuse-me word opens the request. The eleventh line is how you get a waiter's attention or stop a stranger. Beginning with the request itself is possible but curt. New words Fourteen words: the bill, the menu, the meals, the people who bring them, and the polite verb. Word (with harakat) Meaning Notes فَاتُورَة ar fātūra bill, invoice, receipt Pattern / form (I–X) faauwla Plural فَوَاتِير Part of speech noun, feminine How it differs from English an Italian borrowing; the native word for a reckoning is used alongside it الفاتورة من فضلك. The check, please. الْفَاتُورَة مِنْ فَضْلِك. The check, please. حِسَاب ar ḥassāb reckoning, account; the bill Root ح-س-ب Pattern / form (I–X) fiaal, verbal noun Plural حِسَابَات Part of speech noun, masculine How it differs from English from the root for counting behind the word for a computer in 3.1, and the plural is a bank account نَادِل ar nādil waiter Root ن-د-ل Pattern / form (I–X) faail Plural نُدُلَاء Part of speech noun, masculine How