Daily lessons · Day 5 of 90
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Ordering food & drink
Get exactly what you want, politely
This is the lesson that pays for itself on day one of a trip. Japanese restaurant interactions are highly patterned, which is great news: a handful of sentences covers being seated, ordering, asking about a dish, and paying. Today's centrepiece is ください - the single pattern that gets you almost anything you can point at or name.
The ください pattern
“___ を ください” means “___, please”. This one frame does most of the work in any shop or restaurant:
を (written を but pronounced simply “o”) is the object particle: it marks the thing the verb acts on. So これを ください is literally “this - [object] - please give”. You've now met three particles: は (topic), を (object) and か (question). Particles are the skeleton of Japanese grammar, and these three carry an enormous amount of everyday speech.
Getting seated and reading the menu
The interaction before you order follows a script - knowing it removes most of the anxiety:
ください and おねがいします overlap, and beginners worry about choosing. Simple rule: ください is “please give me [thing]” and is slightly more direct; おねがいします is “please do me this favour” and is a touch softer and more deferential. Both are polite and either will be well received - don't overthink it.
Dietary needs and paying
Two practical extras - the one that keeps you safe, and the one that ends the meal:
A serious allergy is worth writing down in Japanese rather than relying on spoken phrases - staff take a written note seriously and will often check with the kitchen. Also note that vegetarianism is less common in Japan than in the UK, and dashi (fish stock) hides in many “vegetable” dishes, so be specific rather than general if it matters medically.
Carry over, from earlier days
Check yourself
9 questions. Nothing is saved unless you finish.