Can I have something hot to drink please?

Something has always bothered me about this sentence: Sumimasen, nani ka atatakai nomimono o kudasai why is it "something hot to drink can i have", and not "something hot drink can I have" nomimono = drink and nani ka = something but how come you don't say "to drink" or just say "atatakai nomimono o kudasai" which i see as "hot drink can i have" my main question is why nomimono is translated as "to drink" in the context of this sentence. Arigatou

Nomu (=to drink) -> Nomi (present form) mono = thing => nomimono = thing to drink (shortly: drink). nanika = something. All the translation thing is adapted for the english users to understand better, whilst the japanese version sounds pretty natural. If you were to say: atatakai nomimono o kudasai it would translate as hot drink please. Sounds natural in english, but has more of a harsh meaning in jp. By adding nanika to mean "something", in jp the sentence has the same meaning, but is a lot softer and gentle. However, when it comes to the english translation, it doesn't sound natural anymore to translate it word by word, thus the translation being something hot TO drink. Hope this helps :). If you still didn't understand properly, I'll try and rephrase my explanation a bit.

Should we use atsui instead of atatakai?

Atsui would be more accurate to indicate hot temperature. In the context though, 'atatakai' might translate better into English as 'hot', merely for it being the English idiom of 'hot drink'.

once again, Pascal-san beats me to the post :). He is right, atsui is used to describe really hot temperatures, while atatakai is used to describe something that is warm, not necessarily really hot. When I refer to "really hot", I mean something that you can't even touch because of its temperature. Therefore, a hot tea is described with atatakai, while boiling water for example is described with atsui.

So if we say 'It's hot', should we use atsui for that too.

What is the context for saying "It's hot"? It depends on what you're referring to. Honestly, though, people will know what you mean either way.

Yes, it will work. In Japanese context, Atsui = hot, atatakai = warm. norui = not cold.

I think you mean nurui 温い, which means lukewarm.

Oh is it, i think nurui = not cold or if drink is at room temperature, atatakai = warm.