When ordering the food it is important to use the Future Tense form of Bí (to be). However, it’s also important to note that Bí is an irregular verb and does not follow the regular conjugation rules of the future tense.
| Beidh mé | I will be |
| Beidh tú | You will be |
| Beidh sé | He/It will be |
| Beidh sí | She/It will be |
| Beimid | We will be |
| Beidh sibh | You [plural] will be |
| Beidh siad | They will be |
| An mbeidh sibh? | Will you [plural] be? |
| Ní bheidh | No (We won’t be) |
As we wish to express what we will have for our dinner courses (in this example), Bí will be used with the prepositional pronoun form of ‘ag’.
| Beidh an t-anraith agam, le do thoil. | I will have the soup, please. |
| Beidh an stéig agus an t-anlann piobair agam don phríomhchúrsa. | I will have the steak and the pepper sauce for the main course. |
Alternatively, we can also use ‘ba mhaith liom’, the conditional form of ‘is maith liom’ (I like) to express a desire to want something when ordering food/drink. Note that the prepositions mar and do lenite the initial consonant of nouns that follow them, where possible.
| Ba mhaith liom an cáca seacláide don mhilseog. | I would like the chocolate cake for dessert. |
| Ba mhaith liom brúitín agus glasraí mar mhias tionlacain. | I would like mashed potatoes and vegetables as a side dish. |
You can read more about the conditional form here.
Another useful preposition in this context is gan. Gan lenites nouns that begin with b, c, g, m or p, provided the noun is independent of a qualifier. This is used to express things you wouldn’t like.
| Beidh an sailéad chaesair agam gan bhlastán. | I will have the Caesar salad without dressing. |
| Beidh an sailéad chaesair agam gan bagún stíocach. | I will have the Caesar salad without streaky bacon. |
Note: Gan will not lenite the noun following it if that noun is further qualified by an adjective or if the noun is a proper noun, e.g. above gan bagún stríocach.
Le is a useful preposition to use if you require an extra element to your dish. More on prepositions here. When le is followed by a noun beginning with a consonant, no change occurs to the noun. However, if le is followed by a noun beginning with a vowel, le will prefix a h to the noun. So for example:
| Ba mhaith liom an curraí le hiasc le do thoil. | I would like the curry with fish, please. |
| Beidh an burgar cáise agam le picilí, le do thoil. | I will have the cheeseburger with pickles, please. |
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