Module 7 of 10
Ordering food and drink
Je voudrais, and the half-dozen lines a café runs on.
Je voudrais is the phrase to learn first and it is not grammar you have met — it is a polite form of vouloir that you should take whole and ask no questions about for now. Je veux, which is the straightforward I want, is blunt enough in a shop to sound rude, so je voudrais is what you use with anyone serving you. S'il vous plaît goes on the end of almost everything, and the vous version is the one to default to with staff.
A café exchange has a shape you can rehearse: greet, order, answer one question, thank, ask for the bill, leave. Bonjour. Je voudrais un café, s'il vous plaît. — Sur place ou à emporter ? — Sur place, merci. The question you did not predict is the only hard part, and the repair phrase from Foundation handles it: Pardon ? Vous pouvez répéter ? Nobody minds. What they mind is being addressed without a Bonjour first, which in France is closer to a rule than to a courtesy.
Played by your device’s own French voice. It is a synthetic voice, not a recording of a teacher — close enough to learn the shape of a word, not close enough to copy exactly.
- Je voudrais un café, s'il vous plaîtI would like a coffee, please — the polite form of I want
- Un thé, s'il vous plaîtA tea, please — the whole order, if you are in a hurry
- Pour moi, une eauFor me, a water
- Qu'est-ce que vous avez comme thé ?What do you have in the way of tea?
- Je suis végétarien / végétarienneI am vegetarian — said by a man / by a woman
- Sans viande, s'il vous plaîtWithout meat, please
- L'addition, s'il vous plaîtThe bill, please
- C'était très bon, merciThat was very good, thank you
Je voudrais, not je veux. Open with Bonjour, close with s'il vous plaît, and have the repair phrase ready for the question you did not expect.