differences - "I want to pay" vs "I would like to pay"


I was recently in a bar in Prague, Czech Republic. When I was going to leave I said to a waiter:



Excuse me, I would like to pay.



He laughed a bit and explained that I should have said:



I want to pay.



because when I say



I would like to pay.



it means that I want to pay for him (i.e. pay his bill).


Was he right indeed? I thought both forms have the same meaning, besides the second one is more polite.



Answer



He was not right.


If you had said, “I'll pay!”, it would be expected that you were talking to someone that you'd just shared a meal (or similar) with, and that you were offering to pay for them. Variants of this include, “I'll get this one” and “This one’s on me”.


If you say to a waiter, “I'd like to pay, please”, however, there is no such implication. “I want to pay” is stronger and might even be considered a bit rude in tone by some.


The most common (and easy) thing to say, however, would be, “Check, please!”, which is used by patrons of restaurants, bars, cafes, etc. in many places around the world (though not in the UK), or the more polite version, “Could I have the check/bill, please?” (‘bill’ being used in the UK and sometimes Canada too; and ‘check’ being, as far as I know, more common most other places).


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