I must say I've found this thread both interesting and useful. Up to now I have always used 'quisiera' as in 'Quisiera reservar una mesa'. I've always got the reservation but not realised that it was a totally inappropriate way of asking for it. Quiera it will be from now. ( I cant find the accent thingy on the keyboard)

Thanks to all for reviving my interest in the Spanish language. Having spent just ten days in Spain in the last year, I feel as if I've forgotten everything I ever learnt .......... must start watching TVE again!

Languages are fascinating things in my opinion. People often grumble about learning grammar but I love it.

If learning Spanish was nothing more than red=rojo, car=coche, beer=cerveza (literal translations) then it would be a very boring thing.

I totally agree. I have no idea what people mean when they say they want to learn a language but not bother with the grammar. Why bother?

Perhaps what they mean is, they don't want to learn the grammatical terms. I have to admit to shutting off a little when people start reeling off the 14 different tenses but that's because I've not had any formal language tuition since the 70's.

The first reply was perfect and succinct. lynnxa at some point you said spainrico didn't explain that 'puedo yo tener...' isn't the correct phrase to use, but in fact he did. You then basically repeated what he'd already said in his post.

You have to realise the internet isn't like real life, there is no need to be all polite and worry about other people's feelings all the time. To be honest, his post didn't come off as rude at all. If someone takes a post like that to heart then internet forums aren't the place to look for advice from.

Also cricketman's (I think) second post with all the phrases was basically the whole answer to this thread: ponme/traeme/quiero, etc. But somehow the OP didn't read it and asked for the same phrase 2 pages later? vOv

If you're reserving a table, I take it the restaurant is quite far removed from the typical Spanish corner bar. For reserving tables at classy restaurants it's perfectly acceptable to use 'quisiera', I often use it. Quería is also perfectly acceptable.

Also, re: to be truly fluent one needs to have grammar as the basis, it's not at all true, and many people can become bogged down in the details instead of just playing it by ear and 'absorbing' the grammatical structures and verb tenses, etc. Obviously you need to do *some* grammar, to learn what different verb tenses look like, but after that listening enough to real conversations and reading books can give you much better results than rote memorizing the skeleton structure of a phrase, e.g. 'Yo verb + pronoun + article + noun, gracias' or whatever.

I am lovin it.

Cheers

PS follow Lynnxas advise.

As we're talking grammar, I know you won't mind me correcting your advice.

I always knew it was usted but the verb didn't make any sense to me. The picture I've got now is you are at the table and you are telling the waiter to go and ask the barman for a drink for you. I've never heard it though and I've asked my wife who's a native and she says she's never heard pedir shoehorned into this role.

It appears that is your opinion otherwise the thread wouldn't have expanded to 50 odd posts. I did read his post but it's confusing for a beginner to be given mutiple options although I appreciated Cricketman trying to help. Lynnxa on the other hand put it across in a noob friendly way which was clear to me, although I am still a little unsure of the pronunciation of Quería.

A lot of language willy waving going on here I think

No Nena, not at all (I hope you are a nena ), I often get my C and S confused.

JL

Well it's my mother tongue and I have to think about "practice" and "practise"!

It helps if you remember that in both these cases, the "c" is used for the noun and the "s" for the verb.

I have never learned that rule, and it is a great tip. As you all know, we Spanish love grammar rules.
Now that I know the difference I wont make the same mistake again.

Before is was 50-50 as to wether it came out right,

Thanks again.

Cheers
JL

try pronouncing it this way

care ree ahhhh

and the American spillchucker doesn't help