Food, Drink & Ordering
Food, Drink & Ordering
Ordering in Dutch leans on one small word English simply does not have: graag. It softens a request from a demand into a polite wish, and leaving it out makes you sound abrupt in a way no amount of 'please' at the end can repair.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
graag: the politeness word with no English equivalent
Ik wil graag een koffie. (I'd like a coffee.)
I would like a coffee.
Ik wil on its own means 'I want' and sounds as blunt in Dutch as it does in English. Adding graag — roughly 'gladly', but functionally untranslatable — turns it into 'I would like', which is why Ik wil graag is the standard ordering formula. English gets the same softening from a conditional verb form ('I would like'); Dutch gets it from an adverb dropped into an otherwise plain present-tense sentence.
Mag ik ... ? asks permission where English asks possibility
Mag ik de rekening, alstublieft? (Could I have the bill, please?)
Could I have the bill, please?
English reaches for 'can' or 'could' — a verb of ability — to make a polite request. Dutch uses mogen, a verb of permission: Mag ik ...? literally asks 'am I allowed ...?'. It is the most common way to order, and note that the verb 'have' is usually left out entirely: Mag ik een biertje? not 'Mag ik een biertje hebben?', though adding hebben is not wrong.
alstublieft and alsjeblieft: 'please' has a formal and an informal form
alstublieft (formal 'please'), alsjeblieft (informal 'please')
please (formal), please (informal)
Where English has one 'please' for everyone, Dutch has two, built from the formal u and the informal je: als het u belieft ('if it pleases you') contracted to alstublieft, and its informal twin alsjeblieft. Use alstublieft with waiters, shop staff and strangers. Both words double as 'here you are' when handing something over — the same form covers both directions of the exchange.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
- English
- the menu
- English
- I would like ...
- English
- Could I have ... ?
- English
- the bread
- English
- the cheese
- English
- the water
- English
- the coffee
- English
- the beer
- English
- the bill
- English
- Enjoy your meal!
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