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- "おさけをください。"
"おさけをください。"
Translation:Alcohol, please.
47 Comments
Two iced alcohols for me and my friend here. Boy do we love responsible legal drinking.
Report it every time they use "can i get..." as it sounds terrible outside of America. Inside too, for some. Doesn't kudasai literally translate as "please give me", anyway? Or just "please"? "Can i get" is a horrible Americanism.
ください(下さい) would, VERY LITERALLY, mean "to want to descend". I like to interpret this as "I want you to descend this thing to my low and humble position".
So yeah, it pretty much means "please give me"
That's... That's not what it "VERY LITERALLY" means. That kanji is used because you're asking to receive something from an equal or inferior (you know, someone "below" you). To descend is 下る（くだる）rather than 下さる（くださる）which we're currently using. Similar root, different word.
952
100per cent agree. In fact "Can I get . . . " in proper use of this verb means the speaker is making a request to fetch the drink his/herself. Get principally means to fetch, obtain, physically go and 'get'. Though in common use now, it never used to mean to receive.
- 952
I have reported this recently, pointing out that using this phrase in british english can also mean can i go get the alcohol myself, but also would most often be taken as a sarcastic remark if ordering in maby english cafes/restaurants for example as it can imply the staff is slow, or dim-witted.
Context, mostly. No one orders "alcohol" in a bar.
Similarly, few people order salmon in a bar, which helps cut down the confusion between 酒 and 鮭 (both "さけ").
- 2300
How do you differentiate between generic alcohol and 'sake' as in the traditional Japanese alcoholic beverage?
How come this is the only one of these horrible "をください" sentences that accepts the answer "(noun) please"? They all should.
Error reports. I think a lot of the sentences have been changed to "~, please" for the main English translation now.
Ill never understand Duolingos decisions on when to use or not use Kanji. It doesnt introduce it well at all.
For example kudasai (下さい) is common in the language, and they should put as kanji to get people familiar with it. But instead they put Kanji for words that are uncommon, and make reading impossible for new learners because its not spelled out in hiragana.
In this sentence it really sounds more like asking if it is possible to be served alcohol (e.g. am I legally old enough in your country ?) rather than placing some kind of order. Even ordering it for chemical purposes would require more specific information than just "alcohol, please ".
If you were asking for nihonshu, you would say 日本酒を下さい (nihonshu o kudasai). This sentence is as equally vague in the Japanese and the English in that the person is requesting an unspecified alcoholic beverage.
- 952
Sake is widely known as rice wain. Asking for 'wine (wain) or 'alcohol' in any language is pointless to any waiter/waitress. Sake does nean rice wine so is specific and helpful but for some reason not accepted (yet) by Duo.
Sake in English means rice wine. 酒 in Japanese means any kind of alcoholic beverage. If I ask a Japanese person what their favorite 酒 is, the answer is usually beer. 酒をください (sake o kudasai) is not really a phrase for ordering in a restaurant. The Japanese is just as vague as the English. You need to give it context to make sense, like if someone is given a free drink coupon that gives them an option for either an alcoholic or nonalcoholic drink, and they choose the alcohol option.
This is so weird, at least should be "Fetch me some wine" or things like that.
Yes. I would like one alcohol. Please excuse the large trenchcoat, and drawn on mustache
Sounds like what one would say at a drugstore. I can't imagine saying that and being satisfied to be given wine or beer or sake or whiskey, don't care which. I would imagine the speaker wants sake.
May would be better than can. Can describes the ability to do be able to something.
Can is fine in standard spoken English, although, at least in America, it is considered less polite in this context
why do they convert requests to questions? so what if someone says "yes you can"... ? This should be "Please give me some sake" since alcohol is vague.
- 952
Is Duo telling me the translation is "alcohol please" when I have leant, to ask in this way refers to rice wine. Im curious because rice wine is not accepted. Yet, would the japanese when asked what they would like to drink, in answering "alcohol please" would leave the questioner puzzled as to which drink that would be? Sake, as a drink is rice wine.
