Episodi 14. Ordering drinks - Catalan for Beginners

Hola! Com estàs?

This episode will teach you lots of vocabulary related to drinks and how to order drinks in Catalan, along with some random other language and chats about the culture in general!

We hope you enjoy! We would be so grateful if you could leave us a rating/review if you haven't already done so, and consider supporting monetarily through our Patreon - it will help us keep the project going and give you access to material that will help you progress quicker with your Catalan!

Moltes gràcies as always!

Transcript

Christina

Ei, hola! Benvinguts i benvingudes al episodi 14! Com estàs, Alex?

Alex

Molt bé merci, i tu?

Christina

També molt bé, gràcies.

So last week we looked at ordering food, if you haven't listened to that I suggest you do as this leads on from there and we're going to be talking about drinks today!

Alex

Molt be, som hi!

…

Christina

Okay so if you're going to a bar/restaurant type of place but you just want to go for drinks, you would say 'per beure'.

Alex

Per beuro… no wait, I butchered that, say it again.

Christina

Per beure.

Alex

Beure.

Christina

Sí. So beure is ‘to drink’ okay, so you’re saying literally ‘in order to drink’, you know if you go somewhere and the waiter asks you ‘per menjar o per beure?’ Yeah, so what was per menjar?

Alex

To eat?

Christina

Yeah, so last week we did ‘per menjar’, ‘per beure’, so that might be what the waiter asks you when you’re ordering, ‘per beure?’, okay? What would you like to drink? I pr menjar? What would you like to eat?

So per beure

Beure. It’s B-E-U-R-E … beure.

Beure

Yeah. The word for drink itself actually is 'beguda'.

Beguda

Yeah, una beguda is a drink,okay. Una beguda.

Una beguda

Sí. So you might get asked something like 'Quina beguda voldria?'

Quina beguda voldria?

Yeah so that’s literally saying ‘What drink would you like?’. Quina beguda voldria? Or 'que voldria per beure?’

Que voldria per beure?’

Beure…

Sorry I’m struggling with that.

It’s quite a difficult word. But yeah ‘Que voldria per beure’ or ‘quina beguda voldria?’ okay ‘begudes’ would be plural, drinks… what drinks would you like, if obviously you’re in a group. So let's go through some common drinks now…  Water is aigua, now if you're asking for it you can say 'Voldria una aigua'

Alex

Voldria una aigua , so voldria was I would like right? 

Yep, Voldria una aigua. 

Alex

So voldria was I woud like right?

Christina

Yep, voldria una aigua. That's to be polite but a lot of the time people would just say 'un aigua' or un aigua si us plau. Una aigua.

Molt bé, moving on, we'll stick to the non-alcoholic drinks then move on to some alcoholic one. so juice for example is 'suc'.

Suc.

Suc. So for example orange juice let’s do, is suc de taronja.

Suc de taronja.

Suc de taronja. Yeah sometimes people miss out, so it’s spelt T-A-R-O-N-J-A, but sometimes people miss out that ‘a’ and say ‘tronja’, but ‘taronja’ is technically how you should say it, okay?

So is taronja orange?

Sí, taronja is orange, okay? You could obviously have all sorts of different juices but we won't overwhelm you too much by going through all of them, you know all the different fruits etc, but that can perhaps be a bonus thing or something to cover in future lessons. So a soft drink, you might ask for, is 'un refresc'.

Un refresc.

Un refresc… The good thing here though is that you can often just use the brand names, if you want a coke or a fanta… fanta’s just the same, coke would be coca cola but you know, people would understand you. Lemonade however would be a bit different, you’d say llimonda

Llimonanda.

Haha..

I said that nothing like what you…

What was that?

Say it again

Llimonada..

Llimonada.

Sí, that was much better, again it’s that double L sound… but yeah llimonada, llimonada is fine. Okay, now for a couple of alcoholic drinks, if you’re going out you might fancy an alcoholic bevarage! So wine is vi.

Vi. As in like a B?

Christina

Like a like a bee? Yeah. Literally like a, B sound. It's spelled VI. But you know, as we've said before, the V's are pronounced like these. So you. Just say B. OK, beer. You might want to ask for this. You tend to ask for beer a lot. Is cervesa.

Alex

Cervesa. Similar to the Spanish, but it's pronounced. CERVESA

Alex

Oh, is there an R in there? So it’d be like cer-veza.

Christina

Yes. C-E-R, so cer-vesa. Yeah. A lot of the time as well, people use the word ‘birra’. It's kind of more informal, but they say, you know, let's go for una birra. Yeah. Is another word for cervesa. OK. Again, luckily, a lot of other drinks are either the same or very similar. So like sangria for example, we actually use the Spanish word very popular in Spain. Sangria. OK, we can go through some of the other drinks in the bonus content for this lesson. Remember, you can find all the information about that on our Patreon. Click the link in the show notes to find out more about that.

Alex

OK, so we learned like quite a lot of drinks there. Is there a way to say a round of drinks?

Christina

Yeah, you could say una ronda is around, OK? Una ronda.

Alex

Una ronda. 

Christina

Una ronda

Alex

So is that a thing over there? Do people buy rounds like we do here in England?

Christina

Good question. I mean I can't say I've had a lot of experience with going out drinking with friends in Catalonia, but I do feel like from my experience it tends to be that everyone just buys their own drinks usually. I mean, it depends on the kind of situation, I suppose. If you know you'll be drinking more, then maybe yeah, they do rounds. But. I feel like the Catalans don't seem to be like the English where they, the English drink a lot more, so maybe it's the whole kind of drinking culture is a bit different.

Alex

Yeah, we we do actually love a drink here in England.

Christina

Yeah, it's very different. And the English kind of go out to pubs, do lots of rounds. Yeah, but. From my experience in Spain in Catalonia, it's like you go for one or two, you know, and that's it, really. And everyone just kind of buys their own. I mean, if you think last summer we were out with some friends, weren't we? Some of like my brothers’ friends we went for a drink with and most people got only got 1 drink and everyone just paid for there own.

Alex

Oh yeah, that was mad. Everyone was like, right at the end. It was like the bill came and everyone was like, oh I’ve only paid 4 euros.

Christina

Yeah. No, I think it was like each. It was like everyone had a beer and they were like €2.00 each or something. Like, really quite cheap, what we what we would think, and I think maybe there was one missing or something from the bill. They were like ugh who hasn't paid? Everyone was getting like mad about who hasn't paid for their beer and like someone was like there’s two euros missing.

Alex

Yeah, I just paid it in the end.

Christina

Yeah, in the end you were like, let me just give these two euros cause like, what is the point? It's €2.00, so I don't know, maybe that's another stereotype of the Catalans being a bit stingy, but you know, they were uni students. So it's all good. They were just kind of like maybe wanted to know who hasn't paid for their beer, but anyway.

Alex

So do you guys have like a cheers as well, like when you have a toast sort of thing?

Christina

Yeah, we do. We call it a brindis, is a toast. 

Alex

Brindis

Alex

Yeah, un brindis it's the same in Spanish, un brindis. But to actually say cheers, we say salut.

Alex

Salut.

Christina

OK, salut. Actually it means health.

Alex

Oh right. So I guess it's like kind of saying to good health.

Christina

Sí, salut. Like you know, here's to good health. You're cheersing for that, that sort of thing. And actually, interestingly enough, it's also used when someone sneezes. So kind of like a bless you.

Alex

Oh really. What? Someone sneezes and you say salut.

Christina

It's actually similar to German, I believe. I know it's gesundheit which is also like good health, so I don't know someone sneezes and you're like, good health wishing you know that someone isn't ill? I don't really know the meaning behind it. We do have a more kind of religious one as well, which is where I think the bless you comes from in England, in English. 

Alex

Is it?

Christina

Yeah, like, God bless you. I think that's what it is, I mean. I don't know. I think it's because in Spanish and Catalan you can say Jesus after someone’s sneezed. 

Alex

What?

Christina

Yeah. So you just say Jesús. 

Alex

Jesús.

Christina

Yep. I mean, I never thought that that was weird until someone pointed it out a few years ago and I was like, yeah, it's kind of strange to say Jesus after someone sneezes. But yeah, you can either say salut or Jesus, but that's kind of gone on a bit of a tangent there. It's not about this topic. We're talking about drinks, but yeah, you can say salut to say cheers. So we're gonna end with one more phrase, which I think is useful in lots of different situations, and not just the restaurant. It's asking how much something is.

Alex

Oh yeah, that's a good one.

Christina

So to ask how much, you would say ‘Quant val?’.

Alex

Quant val?

Christina

Quant val, or quant costa? But usually quant val. So remember that question word quant we've seen before, yeah it’s how or how many… do you remember where else we've seen it before?

Alex

The word Quant?

Christina

Well, we've seen quants

Alex

Oh wait,this is when we've asked about ages, right?

Christina

Yeah, yeah, good. But it's a bit different cause we use the plural. Quants. Yeah, quants anys tens, because it's how many years do you have? Yeah, well remembered, though. Good. 

OK, let's go through a little conversation again to practise some of this language that we've learned today, so I'll be the waiter again, since we're trying to get you to, you know, understand the waiter, waitress, and talk to these people in these situations.

D’acord, som-hi!

Christina

Bona tarda, per menjar o per beure?

Alex

Per beure.

Christina

D'acord. Que voldria per beure?

Alex

Una birra si us plau. I per la meva amiga un vi.

Christina

Molt bé.

Alex

Quant val?

Christina

Son cinq euros si us plau.

Alex.

Aquí té.

Christina

Merci!

There we go! A little short and sweet conversation ordering a drink. Yeah, it can be straightforward, can’t it, Alex?

Well, we'll see if you actually understood what you just read out. So we started with, I said, Bona tarda, per menjar o per beure? Again, we'll leave some time for our listeners to think about what that means before Alex chimes in.

Alex

So bona tarda is good evening.

Christina

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Good evening. It could be good afternoon or good evening.

Alex

OK. And then it was per menjar o per beure, right? So that would be so menjar was to eat and beure was to drink. So was that like, good afternoon or good evening. Is it to eat or to drink?

Christina

Yeah, I'm asking the question to eat or to drink? Yeah. What are they here for? There might be a restaurant you might want food, but you might just want drinks. Per menjar o per beure? So you replied, per beure.

Alex

That would be to drink.

Christina

Yeah. OK. And then I said ‘D’acord. Que voldria per beure?’.

Alex

So ‘d’acord’ is OK and then que voldria per beure would be… like what do you want to drink?

Christina

Yeah. D’acord is OK. Just know actually as well that a lot of people do tend to say the word ‘vale’ instead of d’acord’ to say, OK, it's actually the the Spanish word. So you might hear vale or d’acord, if they’re speaking in proper Catalan. What would you like to drink? So then Alex replied una birra. I per la meva amiga un vi. What does that mean?

Alex

Una birra si us plau. That would be one beer please?

Christina

Yeah, it's the informal way of saying a beer. If you remember when you could say cervesa, for a beer as well.

Alex

And then i per la meva amiga, un vi. That would be... And for my friend, a wine, right?

Christina

Yeah, good. And for my friend, la meva amiga, a wine. OK, so then I said molt bé. OK, like very good. And then Alex asked quant val?

Alex

So that would be how much is it?

Christina

Yeah. How much is it? So I replied, són cinq euros, si us plau.

Alex

And then that is, so is són it’s.

Christina

Mm kind of… Remember the verb to be. Usually it would be ‘és’ yeah, to say it is, but here it's the plural. It's like saying ‘they are’ literally, they are €5. Yeah, but it's just another way of saying that's €5.

Alex

OK. OK. So that's €5 please.

Christina

Yeah, that's five euros. OK. So then, Alex, he says aquíté. D’you remember what that was? Aquí, aquí té.

Alex

So that was. Here you go. Well, here it is.

Christina

Yeah. Here you go. Here it is again. That verb, té there. One of the common verbs. We looked at the verb to have, so it's kind of like saying here you have, here you have it. But we would say here you go… and I said merci.

Alex

Which would be, thank you… in French.

Christina

Thank you. Yeah, and French haha. Yeah merci comes from, yeah merces. I think that was actually in the bonus material that we covered right at the very start of this kind of project. But yeah, merci is another way to say thank you. Gràcies. 

Genial! Before we go, I'm going to give you a quick little test to see if you remembered some of the other drinks that we did this lesson. OK. So the word for water.

Alex

Aigua.

Christina

Molt bé, aigua. Un aigua. What about juice?

Alex

Juice was suc.

Christina

Molt bé. What was orange juice?

Alex

So with orange juice, do I say suc first? And then orange. I'm going to kick myself because it's not that dissimilar from orange, but I can't…

Christina

It is a bit of a weird word. It begins with T.

Alex

Is it like similar to like tangerine?

Christina

Kind of? Ta… taro… taronja.

Alex

So suc taronja

Christina

The only thing is you have to put the de. 

Alex

De taronja.

Christina

Suc de taronja. OK. What about the word for beer? We had that in the conversation just now.

Alex

So beer had two, so the informal that we said in the conversation was birra. But the more formal version would be cerves - cervesa?

Christina

Cervesa. Yeah, cervesa. Cervesa. Yeah. Yeah, birra, can you roll your Rs?

Alex

No, I can't.

Christina

It’s double R. Birra, but yeah. Whatever. If you can't say it right, that's fine. You'll still get the message across birra or cervesa. And what about wine?

Alex

Wine was vi.

Christina

Vi.

Alex

So if um, you want to like red wine or white wine. Would you put the colour after be or before it? So obviously now like in English we say red wine, so would it be wine red?

Christina

Wine red. Yeah, that's what is in Catalan. We can cover some of those in the bonus lessons. OK, we'll go through some of the other ones. A soft drink?

Alex

A soft drink 

Christina

Like a pop. 

Alex

I can't remember a soft drink, sorry.

Christina

Umm, it's not really that commonly used because people, like I said tend to use like the brand names. But a soft drink is un refresc.

Alex

Oh, so un refresc.

Alex

People would normally just say like Fanta or Coca-Cola.

Christina

Yeah. una fanta, una Coca-Cola, what was lemonade? Because that one's a little bit different.

Alex

Lemonade was really difficult to pronounce. It was. Lle, llemonda?

Christina

Llimonada

Alex

Llimonanda

Christina

You always put an an in there! Llimonanda! LlimonADA

Alex

Llimonada

Christina

Yeah. But again, if you're stuck, you could just say something like Sprite, you know. Sprite in that kind of accent so they understand you… and and how do you actually say then, to drink or for drinks?

Alex

So this would be what we said in the conversation, right? So it would be per beure

Christina

Sí molt bé.

Alex

Did I get that right?

Christina

Per beure. Yeah. Per beure. What about the actual word for a drink itself? It's not the same as, you know, per menjar and the word menjar also means food. But in Catalan we have a different word for drink, a drink.

Alex

I have no idea. I thought, per beure was-

Christina

No, that's like to drink like the verb to drink beure, but the actual word for drink was beguda. Una beguda

Alex

Una beguda

Christina

Sí, una beguda. What's the word for a round, like a round of drinks. 

Alex

Una rounda?

Christina

Ronda. 

Alex

Ronda

Christina

Yeah, ronda. What about a toast? As you asked me? A toast. 

Alex

Brindis 

Christina

Yeah, un brindis, un brindis. And then how would you say cheers?

Alex

Salut. 

Christina

Salut. Yeah. Salut. Which also means what?

Alex

Like, bless you. It's for like if someone sneezes.

Christina

Yeah. Well, remembered, good, if someone sneezes. You can say salut or Jesus. And finally, how do you ask someone how much something is?

Alex

Quants val?

Christina

Quant val?

Yeah, it's just singular. So we just say Quant val, quant costa. Molt bé. Brilliant. That was quite a lot. You managed to get quite a few right there. Well done as always, it takes time and repetition. So you know, please don't be worried if you're listening and you're not getting it straight away. It's good to keep going back to it. Maybe write them down or you could download our detailed lesson notes to keep all that condensed information with you to refer back to.

Alex

OK, right. I've got my homework for this week. What's the plan next week then?

Christina

OK, so luckily for you, we won't be learning necessarily new content next week. We're gonna be put in what we've learned in the last four lessons to the test. 

Alex

Oh great. 

Christina

So it is really important to review what we have learned. OK, keep going over it until we're confident we know it. Cause we don't want to just keep on learning too much and just end up forgetting it all.

Alex

OK. Yeah, that that makes sense to be fair. I better get revising and then!

Christina

OK. Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. As always, we really appreciate each and every single one of you who are listening, even getting in touch with us and rating the show.

Alex

Don't forget you can chat to us on Facebook, Instagram, or even discord, and join our Patreon community, where you'll get access to bonus content, detailed lesson notes, and transcripts of each lesson.

Christina

And with that being said, we will see you again next week. Fins aviat!

Alex

Adéu!