Lesson 5 – Asking for a menu

 

Waitress taking woman's order at cafe bar menu smiling sunny
Why are you smiling like that? Give me some time to think about what I want to eat! YOU DIDN’T EVEN GIVE ME TIME TO THINK ABOUT WHAT I WANT TO EAT!!!!

Street Conversation V

After my first ever interview, I went on to do a small prank, probably the only one. Let me know how you’d rate it on a scale from 1 to 10.

 

Sergiu: Scuzaţi-mă. Nu aveţi un meniu?

Excuse me. Do you have a menu? (In Romanian we sometimes ask ‘Don’t you have a menu?’)

Square girl: Nu am…sau ce fel de* meniu?

I don’t…or what kind of menu?

Sergiu: Un meniu pentru…

A menu for….(Here I just didn’t know what to say anymore)

*Ce fel de (what kind of) is a nifty expression when you want to ask someone to explain themselves further.

Ce (what) is what you ask when you didn’t hear something right and you want to be rude about it.

Fel (kind) is a word with all kinds of meanings. However, it’s better just to focus on the first meaning of every word when you are a beginner.

De (of) is surprisingly the most frequent word used in the Romanian language according to some ancient studies.

Grammar V

Verbs

Today we get to see two more verbs in action: a scuza (to excuse) and a ruga (to beg).

 

Scuz I excuse
Scuzi You excuse
Scuză He, she excuses
Scuzăm We excuse
Scuzați You excuse
Scuză They excuse

Excuse me can be said in two ways:

Scuză-mă! when you are talking in an informal way.

Scuzați-mă! when you are talking in a polite way.

The fifth row in all of our verb conjugation tables also include the polite form with dumneavoastră replacing tu and voi.

For instance, if I’m talking to my teacher and I am going to ask him if he’s Hungarian, I won’t say (tu) eşti maghiar? I will say (dumneavoastră) sunteţi maghiar? Since we don’t explicitly say dumneavoastră, it would sound like we are talking to multiple persons. This is what being polite is all about. Seeing double, when you’re talking to someone in higher rank 😛

Dumneavoastră comes from Domnia voastră (your highness/gentlemanship). Domnia  comes from Domn which means “gentleman” or “Mr”.

Domnul (The gentleman) is another way of saying Dumnezeu (God).

 

Rog I beg
Rogi You beg
Roagă He, she begs
Rugăm We beg
Rugați You beg
Roagă They beg

Dialogue V

 

Sergiu: Scuzați-mă, aveți un meniu? (watch out, as this is the polite form, you could guess this out of context because there are only 2 people in this dialogue)

Excuse me, do you have a menu?

Daniela: Da. O clipă, vă rog. (observe is used instead of te)

Yes. One moment, please.

Sergiu: Ok. (we pronounce “ok” almost just like in English)

Ok.

Key Vocabulary V

 

A avea – To have

Nu – No

Sau – Or

Ce fel de? – What kind of?

Pentru – For

Un – A (masculine form)

Meniu – Menu

O – A (feminine form)

Clipă – Moment

Vă rog – Please (literally I beg you)

Supă – Soup

Nouns ending in ă are going to automatically be feminine nouns unless we say otherwise. That means they will use o instead of un.

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7 thoughts on “Lesson 5 – Asking for a menu”

  1. A Ruga, such a beautiful verb/word. Only Romanian uses this word, among the other Romance Languages, directly from the Latin “rogare”. Even in Italian, this word becomes “pregare”.
    Rogo, Rogare, Rogavi, Rogatus, verb ( Ist conjugation).
    Rogo
    Rogas
    Rogat
    Rogamus
    Rogatis
    Rogant
    ” Rogat frater, ne abeas longius.” (Vai de mine, Demea, El roagă frate așa că nu să aibă lung)

    1. It’s the same thing, the only difference is that “maghiar” comes from Hungarian and “ungur” is a Slavic word.

    1. The English word ‘interrogation’ has the same Latin origin.
      About ‘rogue’ linguists are not certain. It might be Celtic or twisted Latin

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