I can read a menu and order in a Spanish restaurant: name the first course, the main course, and dessert, and ask for the check.
The menu: three parts of a meal
How a Spanish lunch works
In a Spanish restaurant, lunch comes in courses, and you order it course by course: de primero — the first course, de segundo — the main course, de postre — dessert. The menu is called la carta (not a card).
How to order:
• De primero, sopa. (Soup for the first course.)
• De segundo, pollo con arroz. (Chicken with rice for the main course.)
• De postre, fruta. (Fruit for dessert.)
You can start with yourself: Para mí, ensalada. (A salad for me.)
English says “for me”, but after para Spanish uses mí with an accent mark, not me. Plain mi without the mark means “my”: mi hermana.
No article before food after the verb, just like English “I drink coffee”: Bebo café. Como ensalada. Tomo pescado.
A special word: agua is feminine, but the article before it is el — el agua. In the plural — las aguas.
To ask for the check: La cuenta, por favor. The word cuenta is feminine — la cuenta, so “el cuenta” is wrong.
Common mistakes:
• NOT “la agua” — correct: el agua.
• NOT “Para me, sopa” — correct: Para mí, sopa.
• NOT “El cuenta, por favor” — correct: La cuenta, por favor.
• NOT “De primer, sopa” — correct: De primero, sopa.
Lesson notes
How a Spanish lunch works
In a Spanish restaurant, lunch comes in courses, and you order it course by course: de primero — the first course, de segundo — the main course, de postre — dessert. The menu is called la carta (not a card).
How to order:
• De primero, sopa. (Soup for the first course.)
• De segundo, pollo con arroz. (Chicken with rice for the main course.)
• De postre, fruta. (Fruit for dessert.)
You can start with yourself: Para mí, ensalada. (A salad for me.)
English says “for me”, but after para Spanish uses mí with an accent mark, not me. Plain mi without the mark means “my”: mi hermana.
No article before food after the verb, just like English “I drink coffee”: Bebo café. Como ensalada. Tomo pescado.
A special word: agua is feminine, but the article before it is el — el agua. In the plural — las aguas.
To ask for the check: La cuenta, por favor. The word cuenta is feminine — la cuenta, so “el cuenta” is wrong.
Common mistakes:
• NOT “la agua” — correct: el agua.
• NOT “Para me, sopa” — correct: Para mí, sopa.
• NOT “El cuenta, por favor” — correct: La cuenta, por favor.
• NOT “De primer, sopa” — correct: De primero, sopa.
tomar and pedir
tomar is a regular -ar verb, and you already know how to conjugate those: tomo, tomas, toma, tomamos, tomáis, toman. In a restaurant, tomar means “to have” (food or a drink), as in English “I'll have the soup”: ¿Qué tomas de segundo?
pedir means “to ask for, to order”. Its stem changes e to i: pido, pides, pide, piden. The nosotros and vosotros forms don't change: pedimos, pedís.
This is the third such verb in the course. empezar had e → ie, volver had o → ue, and there too the nosotros and vosotros forms stayed unchanged.
Common mistakes:
• NOT “Yo pedo” — correct: pido.
• NOT “Ellos peden” — correct: piden.
• NOT “Nosotros pidemos” — correct: pedimos.
• NOT “Vosotros pidís” — correct: pedís.
• NOT “Tengo sopa” when ordering — correct: Tomo sopa.