Donniedillon:So, instead of trying to as an English question in Esperanto why not just go with a simple and straight forward Esperanto question?

Bonolu, doni al mi puran forkon. Ĉi tiu forko estas malpura. Dankon.

Please, give me a clean fork. This fork is dirty. Thanks.

This is simple, clear, polite.

Isn't that something more you ask of a waiter? Perhaps for friends or strangers who aren't meant to be in service to you, there's a different way of asking needed...

I've never found this straightforward in Esperanto anyway. There's no way I've seen in the "culture" of Esperanto, like, when learning other languages you see cultural notes saying "don't ask X this way since you'll sound rude, Y-ians only like to ask using Z word since ABC has strong connotations of DEF" etc.

@ Sudanglo, thanks for that. Could you say "Ĉu vin ĝenus se ____", with the "se" bit acting like a noun clause?

ceigered:
@ Sudanglo, thanks for that. Could you say "Ĉu vin ĝenus se ____", with the "se" bit acting like a noun clause?

You can say that, for example: Ĉu vin ĝenus, se mi irus hejmen?

darkweasel:

ceigered:
@ Sudanglo, thanks for that. Could you say "Ĉu vin ĝenus se ____", with the "se" bit acting like a noun clause?

You can say that, for example: Ĉu vin ĝenus, se mi irus hejmen?

Hehe, awesome, thanks. I can imagine nice ways to abuse that now - "Ĉu vin ĝenus, se mi irus hejmen? Via hejmo estas tro enuiga! Kaj mi volas iri sole."