What meaning does »einmal« convey in this particular context?

Question

The following sentence:

• Bitte einmal volltanken!

appears in the Goethe Institut B1 vocabulary list.

I found a very informative post on the use of »einmal« as an adverb but I'm still a little confused about the likely meaning of this particular sentence. Unfortunately, the two possibilities that occurred to me after reading the post I've mentioned, have exactly the opposite attitude from one another:

1. (non-sarcastically) When/if you have time, I'd be grateful if you could fill up the tank, or
2. I've been waiting for ages; could you perhaps eventually do your job and fill up the tank.

Is either of these correct?

Answer 1

The use of 'einmal' when ordering things is very common in German; the idea being that e.g. at a burger place, you're ordering one burger and that's it. The conversational implication is that "you can start processing my order now, because there won't be any more items".

At a gas station it's comparatively unlikely that you'll have a second car waiting around which you'd like filled up as well, so that this implication isn't really needed, but since it's so widespread in ordering situations, people will still say it even though the literal meaning isn't necessary.

Answer 2

You can simply translate it to "once" / "one time" or similar.

Bitte einmal volltanken!

It means that you want the tank to be completely filled ("volltanken") once ("einmal"). For my understanding, the "einmal" is completely redundant, as it is highly unlikely that you'd e.g. enter into a tanking subscription at a gas station. So, it could as well just be

Bitte volltanken!

Regarding the interpretation of "einmal" as denoting the end of the order: I don't feel that. Something like

Einen Cheeseburger mit Pommes, einmal Mayonnaise und zweimal Ketchup.

is perfectly natural, and shows the "einmal" in the middle of the ordering process.

Answer 3

Your sentence is:

1. Bitte einmal volltanken!

Grammatically speaking, the question is whether the word «einmal» is a modal particle or an adverb. If it is an adverb, it means ‘once’. Modal particles, on the other hand, express the speaker’s attitude towards the entire utterance. The modal particle “einmal” expresses that the speaker means the utterance ‘only this one time’. In the case of demands, this makes them more polite by restricting the scope.

We can test whether the word «einmal» is a modal particle with a substitution test. The modal particle «einmal» can be shortened to «mal»:

2. Bitte mal volltanken!

This is not ungrammatical, but it sounds much less plausible to me than (1). Therefore, it seems more likely that the word is an adverb in this sentence.