Everytime when we want to ask something we can use the phrase “Можно … ?”. We can translate it to English as “May I have … ?”
Thus, if you want to order food you can say,
Можно салат, пожалуйста? –
May I have a salad, please?
Everything you have to do is just to rise your intonation and to add the magic word “пожалуйста” (sounds like / pa-`ʒA-loos-ta/) to sound polite.
Можно капучино, пожалуйста?
Можно суши, пожалуйста?
Можно десерт, пожалуйста?
The nouns after можно should be in the accusative case. Which means feminine nouns should change their endings. We replace -а with -у and -я with -ю. As we talk about ordering food, we are talking about inanimate nouns. With animated nouns accusative case is more complicated. But you can read about it here.
Можно, пожалуйста, пиццу, рыбу и кока-колу?
May I have a pizza, fish and coca cola please?
Usage “Можно” with verbs
If you need to ask people to do something or if you ask for permission, you can use
“можно” + the verb in the infinitive form.
Examples
- Можно спросить вас? – May I ask you?
- Можно позвонить? – May I call?
- Можно посмотреть? – May I see/watch?
- Можно войти? – May I come in?
- Можно выйти? – May I go out?
- Можно, пожалуйста, выключить музыку? – Could you please turn the music off ?
- Можно платить кредитной картой? – May I pay with a credit card?