A waiter comes to your table, opens the menu and asks the first question of the meal. In English that’s Are you ready to order? — and the tricky part is the small word after “ready”.
The phrase: Are you ready to order?
The natural question is Are you ready to order? The pattern be ready to + verb means “prepared to do something”, and order here is a verb (“to place your order”), not the noun “an order”.
- Are you ready to order?The standard waiter’s question.
- Are you ready to order yet?“Yet” in a question means “already” — the waiter is checking whether you’ve decided.
Ukrainian uses “готові до” for both «готові замовляти» and «готові до десерту». English separates them, so the word after “ready” decides the preposition.
Ready to or ready for?
This is the main trap for Ukrainian and Russian speakers: we always say “готові до”, but English depends on what comes next:
- ready to + verb — ready to act: ready to order, ready to leave, ready to talk.
- ready for + noun — ready for something (an event, a stage, a dish): ready for dessert, ready for the exam.
- Are you ready for dessert?Dessert is the noun, so “for”.
- We’re ready for the exam.The exam is a noun, so “for”.
- We’re not ready to order yet.“Order” is a verb, so “to”.
Common mistakes
- Are you ready for order? — after for you need a noun; here you need a verb: ready to order.
- Do you ready to order? — the auxiliary verb is missing: Are you ready….
- Are you ready to make an order? — grammatical, but heavy. In a restaurant, short is more natural: to order.
How to reply to the waiter
- Yes, we’re ready. I’ll have the soup, please.A direct answer: you’re ready and you say what you want.
- Not yet, could we have a few more minutes?Polite: you need more time.
- Give us a couple of minutes, please.Same idea, shorter and friendly.
Once you’ve ordered, you may also need the phrase for the bill from lesson 75, or “I’ll take the same, please” from lesson 78.
Check yourself
Say it in English, then reveal the answer:
1.Ask a waiter whether you can order yet, politely checking if they’re ready.
Answer
Are you ready to order yet?
2.Say you’re not ready yet and ask for a few minutes.
Answer
We’re not ready yet. Give us a few minutes, please.
3.Ask a friend whether they’re ready for dessert.
Answer
Are you ready for dessert?
New mini-lessons come out on our YouTube channel. If you want to order in English with confidence, not just point at the menu, come to a free trial lesson.
