Episodi 12. At the restaurant - Making a reservation - Catalan for Beginners

Hola!

This week's episode will teach you how to talk to a waiter at a restaurant, including making a reservation and making requests.

We hope you enjoy!

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Moltes gràcies!

Transcript

Christina

Hola, benvinguts i benvingudes al episodi dotze.

Alex

Welcome to episode 12, què tal Christina? 

Christina

Bé, i tu?

Alex

Molt bé, gràcies. Genial.

Christina

So today, like I mentioned in last week's episode, we will be learning how to communicate iIn a restaurant situation, or I suppose a pub or a bar, that kind of thing.

Alex

D’acord. Let's get to it - som-hi!

Christina

So last week we had a little bit of a waiter-customer scenario. We heard the waiter (or me) ask ‘té una reserva’, if you remember that, ‘té una reserva’. Any ideas what this means?

Alex

Reserva, is that reservation? OK, so the rest again for me.

Christina

Té una reserva. It could be ‘tens una reserva’.

Alex

Doesn't té mean he or she has?

Christina

Yeah, but this is the verb form that is also used for the formal version of ‘you’, if you remember. It could mean he has or she has, but because the way to speaking to you directly, you can assume that they're asking ‘do you have’ OK? It becomes a question.

Alex

Ah, so it's do you have a reservation?

Christina

Sí. It's asking if you've reserved a table or made a booking, that kind of thing. So you could reply with simply sí or no, or even, sí tinc una reserva or tenim una reserva.

Alex

Ohh yes, I have a reservation or tenim? What? What's that?

Christina

Tenim is actually we have, OK, so if you wanted to say we have a reservation of the group of you Tenim una reserva. If we wanted to say we don't have a reservation, what do you think you might say?

Alex

No tenim una reserva.

Christina

Genial, no tenim una reserva, but we don't actually have to say una there. That article we can just say, no tenim reserva. I think it's because it's like a negative sentence. Not gonna lie, I'm not too sure exactly the grammar rules on that. I think it's the same in French where we don't include the article, we say de instead, but in Catalan we just don't have to say anything, so no tinc reserva or no tenim reserva.

Alex

Would that apply to all negative sentences?

Christina

Yeah. I mean, we're gonna come across another one shortly. So you'll see another example of this later on. So if you're wanting to make a reservation, you might also phone up and ask, and you could say something slightly different, so ‘puc fer una reserva?’

Alex

Puc fer una reserva?

Christina

Sí, it literally means can I make a reservation? If you remember that verb ‘fer’. We came across it in the hobbies lesson for example ‘fer esport’ you had to do sport so that verb can mean ‘to do’ or ‘to make’. It's very common and it's going to come up a lot so it's a useful one to know. So puc is can I? or I can… Can I make a reservation? OK, then in last week's episode, we also heard me or the waiter could ask ‘quants sou?’. Technically you have learned both of these words before. Do you recognise them ‘quants sou?’

Alex

So quants… I recognise that from quants anys tens, which is about age.

Christina

Yeah, quants anys tens? How old are you or how many years do you have?

Alex

So does quants mean how?

Christina

Yeah. How how many, quants? So.

Alex

So, so.

Christina

So so so.

Alex

Did we learn that in a bonus one?

Christina

Yeah, we did. We learnt it in a bonus episode. Sou…

Alex

I can't remember what it means.

Christina

So it's part of that paradigm of the verb to be, yeah. So we've done a lot in the main episodes, like sóc yeah? I am, sóc de, whatever… Sóc or és to describe he or she. Now sou is not as common, but it's you plural form. Yeah, so it's asking. How many are you? Yeah, you are plural. Yeah, you are… so quants sou? How many are you?

Alex

OK. OK. Yeah. So it's asking as if like you're a group?

Christina

Yeah. How many are you like a group of people and then you could obviously reply with we are, which again is a different verb in that paradigm. I don't suppose you remember that one?

Alex

Was that som?

Christina

Yeah, som, som, molt bé. So you can just say some dos, som tres, some cinq etcetera. Yeah. Oh, you might just ask them first whether they've got a table, for example, teniu una taula per a tres personas? OK. Could you repeat that, teniu una taula? I'll break it down. It's a long phrase.

Alex 

I was gonna say you’ll have to say that slow!

Christina

So again, ‘teniu’  is just asking, do you have (the you plural), teniu, do you have? So teniu una taula.

So can you say that? Teniu una taula

Alex

Teniu una taula.

Christina

Yeah. Do you know what that means?

Alex

I recognise una taula.

Christina

Yeah. And I've just told you teniu, were you listening?

Alex

No, you’ve put me on- I was panicking at how long the sentence I’d gotta say was. Uh it means you? Plural you.

Christina

Have. Yeah, you have, isn't it? Tinc is I have. Teniu is you plural have. I tend to think of like you guys have, because obviously in English is not really a differentiation between the singular you. But yeah, teniu is plural. Una taula?

Alex 

Table

Christina

I was pointing at a table just to give him a bit of a clue. So yeah. Do you have a table… per a tres persones.

Alex

So per a tres persones… for three people?

Christina

Sí, per a tres persones. A lot of people tend to not say that ‘a’ though, so you might hear people say per tres persones per quartre, persones, etc.

Alex

OK, so say the full sentence again.

Christina

Teniu una tabla per a tres persones.

Alex

Teniu una tabla per a tres persones.

Christina

Molt bé. Next, we might get asked where we want to sit. We might have the option of eating inside or outside. Voldria una taula a dins o a fora?

Alex

Voldria una taula a dins… What was the rest of it, sorry?

Christina

O a fora.

Alex

Or a fora.

Christina

Sí. So if you break it down, voldria is would you like? And it's actually the same to say I would like, voldria is you would like or I would like. Una taula we've seen already.

Alex

A table? 

Christina

Yeah. So would you like a table? A dins is inside, and a fora is outside. So you just have that preposition before, ‘a dins o a fora’?

Alex

So does ‘o’ mean like ‘or’ in English?

Christina

Yeah, that's yeah, sorry I missed that. So you would say a dins o a fora. So it's just one letter in Catalan, the letter ‘o’, yeah? A dins o a fora.

OK, let's just imagine you are shown to your table now and you are sat down. You're relieved that you're able to speak some Catalan and everything is all good… except you are missing something from your table. How on earth are you going to eat without a fork or drink without a glass? How do you tell the waiter that you don't have something or you need something?

Alex

I’d make hand gestures.

Christina

Haha. How are you going to make a hand gesture for a fork?

Alex

Pretend that I'm eating.

Christina

OK. I guess you could do that.

Alex

Actually I just realised that I've made that gesture on a podcast where no one can see me.

Christina

Yeah, not the best to do so. You actually do know how to say I don't have. If you think about it.

Alex

I don't have.

Christina

What’s I have? 

Alex

Tinc

Christina

Yeah, make it negative.

Alex

No tinc.

Christina

Molt bé. OK, so you could just say ‘no tinc’ and then whatever you don't have, which we're gonna learn in a second. But you could also say ‘I need’ and the word for I need is ‘necesito’. 

Alex

Necessito

Christina

Molt bé. So you've got no tinc and necesito. Let's learn some table vocab. Now we're just going to do the cutlery in this lesson and cover some more vocab in the bonus episode, so a fork is una forquilla.

Alex

Una forquilla

Christina

Una forquilla. A spoon is una cullera.

Alex

Una cullera. Did I say that right? I feel like I said it wrong at the end.

Christina

Yeah, no. Una cullera.Yeah, it's got again that double L sound, which is quite difficult, but you could just say, you know, ‘cuYera’..

Alex

Cullera.

Christina

Yeah, cullera. Molt bé. And then a knife is un ganivet. 

Alex

Un ganivet.

Christina 

Un ganivet, perfecte. So which ones of those? There were feminine and which ones were masculine?

Alex

I'm trying to remember what I've just said now, uhh, un ganivet was masculine.

Christina

Yeah, that one we just did, masculine. Una cullera?

Alex

That would be fenemine, fenemine, feme- I can't even say the word… feminine.

Christina

Alex can't even speak English, let alone Catalan, so you're already doing better than him. I'm joking, fenomine. Feminine. Feminine. … un cullera, feminine, and una forquilla?

Alex

That would be the same.

Christina

Trying to avoid saying feminine! Yeah. So just as a recap un is masculine una is feminine for those articles. So what does this mean, do you think? Necesito un ganivet.

Alex

So would that be… I need a knife?

Christina

Yep, I need necesito. Un ganivet is a knife. Molt bé. What about no tinc cullera.

Alex

I don't, wait I'm confused because you didn't say una, so is this I don't spoon.

Christina

Remember tinc…

Alex 

I don't have.

Christina

Yeah. So I don't have spoon. Yeah, you're right. So as we mentioned earlier, we don't need an article here because it's negative, isn't it? No tinc cullera, so we don't need that word for ‘a’.

Alex

Okay like earlier on… was it with… was that about a table I can’t remember now.

Christina

Yeah, it was about making a reservation. Yeah. So you could say I don't have reservation as well. You don't need to say a reservation. So no tinc reserva, no tinc cullera, no tinc forquilla. Whatever, OK? Right, let's put this all into a little dialogue now, as always to practise. Hopefully you do better than last week Alex and you can actually understand me today. See if you're listening can follow along

Alex

Are you gonna do the weird accent?

Christina

Haha. Well, I don't have to speak English hopefully for this one. If you can understand me I won't have to speak English. I'm going to just pretend to be a normal Catalan waiter or waitress.

Bon dia, té una reserva?

Alex

Hola, no tenim reserva. Teniu una taula per a cinq persones?

Christina

Sí! Cinq persones. Voldria una taula a dins o a fora?

Alex

A dins si us plau.

Christina

D’acord. OK, now we've sat down or you've sat down.

Alex

Perdona, no tinc forquilla. 

Christina

Ah ho sento, aqui tens. (té).

Alex

Moltes gràcies.

Christina

Molt bé, there you go! Did you get all that list? Let's talk through this conversation a little bit. So I started by saying bon dia, té una reserva? What does that mean?

Alex

Good morning or good day. And was it like do you have a reservation?

Christina

Exactly. Good. Yeah. Do you have a reservation? And then you said Hola. No tenim reserva. Teniu una taula per a cinq persones. Teniu una taula?

Alex

So would that be. Hello. No, I don't have a reservation.

Christina

Yeah. Although that would be tinc. So we said tenim which was the…

Alex

Oh we…

Christina

We yeah, tenim was we have. So we don't have a reservation or a booking. Teniu una taula per a cinq persones.

Alex

Can we have a table for five people?

Christina

Yeah, nearly, but not can we… But that teniu again is that verb.

Alex

Do you have a table for five people?

Christina

Yeah. Do you have, the plural version… And then I said, sí, voldria una taula a dins o a fora?.

Alex

So that would be. Uh, yes. And then was that, do you want a table inside or outside?

Christina

Yeah. Voldria is kind of like quite polite. Would you like?

Alex

Would you like rather than do you want?

Christina

Yeah. Voldria, would you like a table inside or outside? And then Alex replied with a dins si us play.

Alex

So that would be inside, please

Christina

Yeah, well done from last week. You remembered ‘si us plau’ means please. Yeah. Or even sis plau. Because sometimes they miss off that ‘us’. Then I said the d’acord.

Alex

OK, 

Christina

OK… And then obviously some time’s passed you've sat down, you've realised something and Alex said. perdona, no tinc forquilla.

Alex

So would that be like pardon, I don't have a fork.

Christina

Yeah. Pardon. Excuse me. I don't have a fork, OK? And I said, ah ho sento. What's that? Ho sento.

Alex

Oh, I remember we did sento.

Christina

Yeah, ho sento

Alex

Would that be something like… Sorry?

Christina

Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. Like, sincere kind of heartfelt apology. Yeah, ho sento. Now I then added this little bit, which we haven't done yet. Aqui tens. We have done tens, again it comes from that verb… tens?

Alex

Would that be liike you?

Christina

What's the verb? 

Alex

You have?

Christina

You have. Yeah. Yeah. It's that verb to have, tenir. So tinc, tens, té etcetera. So we've learned whole paradigm now. But it's useful to keep going through it. So aqui tens. Here you go. OK. That's what it means. Aqui, well, literally aqui means here. Yeah. So it's just saying, here you go. Aqui tens, and then he replied, moltes gracies.

Alex

Thank you very much.

Christina

Sí, thank you very much. It's always good to be polite, OK? That was everything. OK, we've covered a fair bit today, so knowing how to, you know, make a reservation, talking about where you wanna sit, that kind of thing and talking about things that you might be missing from the table, how to talk to the waiter or waitress. Now, we haven't even got to the ordering part yet or even things like how to ask for the bill. But we have already learned quite a lot so I'm going to save that for next week's lesson.

Alex

OK, that sounds good. Gives me a chance to get my head around the things we learnt today because I'm really struggling at this point!

Christina

Don't say that that! Make me feel like I've thrown too much at you. But small steps. Yeah, you can kind of replay this as many times as you want to and then next week we will learn some more vocabulary so we can start ordering food. We hope that you feel you're making progress with these lessons. If you would like to make faster progress, we are going to be learning a few extra things in the bonus content. You can access this through our Patreon page that we've launched recently. Shout out to Trygve, I hope I pronounced your name right, our very first Patreon. Thank you so much! As well as bonus episodes, we offer transcripts, lesson notes for all our episodes, and a reminder that anyone who joins our patron in the month of April will get access to extra content like vocab lists, flashcards and worksheets from the first five episodes to practise your Catalan further. You can click the support the show link in the description to find out more. Any support you give us is so appreciated, even if it's just given us a quick review, sharing our podcast or telling even just one person about it.

Alex

But on the side now all this restaurant talk has made me hungry.

Christina

Pa amb tomàquet for tea tonight?

Alex

Pam from the market? I’d rather Chinese myself!

Christina

Pa amb tomàquet! We'll talk more about that next week and what that is. But yeah, next week you'll actually learn how to order this food. If you do want a Chinese rather than Pa amb tomàquet, so you'll be able to do that confidently as. Well, right then. See you next week. Fins aviat! 

Alex

Adeu!

Christina

Adeu!