I need the "Metric System for Dummies"-please help me (Spanish or Catalan)
 

I hate to confess this, but we didn't order meat or cheese from the deli in grocery stores in Italy because we didn't know how much we needed in kilograms.

I found an on-line conversion chart, so now I know that a pound of meat or cheese is .4535 kg, a half pound is .226 and a quarter pound is .113. Darn...I was hoping it would go the other way, so I could just hold up two fingers or something when ordering.

I'd love to be able to sample cured meats in Barcelona, but my Spanish is bad, and my Catalan is non-existent. Are there some common words to use when ordering, e.g. a half or a quarter kilo, or am I better off just writing down the amount I need?

You might be better off if you expressed those less-than-one-Kilo weights in terms of GRAMS (such as that 113 which equals about a 1/4 pound).

1000 Grams = one Kilo = 2.2 pounds

you can also order by the slice (loncha).

dos lonchas gordas, tres lonchas FINAS.. and they weigh it.

that is what i do when calculating exact sandwiches for a party.

gordas/finas/muy finas, muy gordas
thick/thin

If you can remember that 500kg is a bit more than a pound, you should be able to go from there. I've always used that as my guide and have had no trouble -- you know the numbers 1-10 and 100 in the local language so you are all set.

500KG is a LOT more than a pound...you must mean 500 GRAMS

Or just go to a supermarket where meat and cheese are sold pre-packed!

Thanks, everyone. Alec, that's what we did in Italy and that's what I want to avoid in Spain. Our choices were quite limited because we were metric impaired.

Which begs the question - are you metric impaired, or simply math challenged? If the latter, then I suggest investing $2 in a pocket calculator. Maybe one with metric conversions printed on the back?

Thanks, Dukey, for catching my typo. Of course if you just say "two hundred" the vendor will know that you mean grams and won't give you that many kilos.

Robespierre, the issue is knowing how to say what I want...do I say a half a kilogram, or 500 grams? Which is more common? How should I order so that I am most likely to get what I want (e.g. writing it down?)....I sure don't want to get 500 kg when I meant 500 grams!

Occasionally (perhaps more often in restaurants, referring to the price of a steak, or a lobster), you might see "per etto", referring to "ettogrammi" (hectograms, in English), so, in a deli... 1, 2, 3 or 4 "etto" is slightly under under 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 or a full pound.

And as indicated above, pointing, and saying "cento, due centi, tre centi", etc., is pretty unambiguous - - since grams is the only unit that makes sense when pointing at a 8 kg ham.

Best wishes,

Rex

What Rex said.

If the language is the issue, then calculate what you want and round it up to the nearest convenient number. Then show the calculator to the vendor.

For example, if you're buying an expensive spice* and the answer is 84g., then round up to 100g. For cheese, maybe the nearest 250g (about ½ lb.).

* Did you know that saffron is the most expensive item in most grocery stores (on a $/pound basis)? It's typically in the range of $2-3 for 1/8 of an ounce.

Hi MP
>do I say a half a kilogram, or 500 grams?

If you want about 2 oz of something, on a piece of paper write "50 gram", 4 oz is "100 gram", etc.

((I))

Okay, now I'm going to really show my ignorance, but are the words "gram" and "kilogram" the same in all western European languages?

Yes, a kilogram is the same weight around the world. Same with a gram.

I think mp was asking about the terminology. I don't have a definitive answer, but in French and German, the words are cognate with English.

Not the weight - the word. Is the Spanish word for "kilogram" still "kilogram"?

A friend of mine tells a funny story about this. While traveling in Germany as an 18 year old, he and his friend went in to order at a deli counter. They both were large boys with very healthy appetites, so they ordered "zwei gram" of lunch meat, hoping that it wouldn't be TOO much. The counter attendant just about fell over laughing - and tried to explain that two grams would be about two specks!

German is Kilogramm ;-)

Fun things one can find online:

Italian: grammo
Greek: γραμμάριο
French: gramme
German: Gramm
Portugese: grama
Spanish: gramo
Russian: грамм
etc...

But I am pretty sure you won't have problem at any store, saying "gram"!