Em podries passar el tomàquet i l'oli, si us plau?

and

Breakdown of Em podries passar el tomàquet i l'oli, si us plau?

• em: me
• poder: to be able to
• el tomàquet: the tomato

Questions & Answers about Em podries passar el tomàquet i l'oli, si us plau?

Why does the sentence start with em?

Em means to me.

In Catalan, an indirect object pronoun often appears before the verb, so:

• Em podries passar... = Could you pass me...

This is different from English word order, where me usually comes after the verb. In Catalan, clitic pronouns like em, et, li, ens, us, els normally go before the conjugated verb.

A very literal breakdown is:

• Em = to me
• podries = could you
• passar = pass
• el tomàquet i l'oli = the tomato and the oil
• si us plau = please

So the structure is normal Catalan, even if it feels reversed compared with English.

Why is it podries and not something like a direct present-tense form?

Podries is the conditional form of poder (to be able to / can), and here it is used for a polite request.

So:

• Em pots passar... ? = Can you pass me... ?
• Em podries passar... ? = Could you pass me... ?

Both are correct, but podries sounds softer and more polite. This is very similar to English, where Could you... ? is usually more polite than Can you... ?

What exactly is passar doing here? Does it literally mean to pass?