Breakdown of Signore, vuole ordinare o vuole chiedere il conto?
o
or
il signore
gentleman, sir, Mr.
chiedere
to ask
volere
to want
ordinare
to order
il conto
the bill
Questions & Answers about Signore, vuole ordinare o vuole chiedere il conto?
Why does the sentence use vuole instead of vuoi if it means "do you want"?
Because the speaker is addressing a customer (Signore), they are using the polite, formal "you". In Italian, the formal "you" takes the same verb form as "he/she", which is vuole (he/she wants, or formal you want). Vuoi is the informal "you", used with friends and family.
Why do the verbs ordinare and chiedere keep their -re endings?
When you use a modal verb like volere (to want), the action you want to do stays in its dictionary form, called the infinitive. Here, vuole is conjugated to match the formal "you", and the following verbs, ordinare (to order) and chiedere (to ask for), stay in the infinitive.
In English we say "ask FOR the bill". Where is the word for "for" in Italian?
The Italian verb chiedere means "to ask for" all by itself. You don't need to add a preposition like per (for). You just say chiedere followed directly by what you want, like chiedere il conto.
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