Two people sit down. One has chosen. The other is still negotiating with the menu. You need French for both of them.

If you work in a restaurant, café or hotel dining room, a few useful phrases will get you started. The real work begins when the customer answers: a different drink, a missing ingredient, a change of mind just as you close your notepad.

Here are French phrases for waiters and waitresses, with customer replies, pronunciation à l’oreille and a short exercise. We’ll follow a table from the welcome to the bill. The examples are imagined service situations you can adapt to your workplace, in France or wherever you serve French-speaking guests.

The questions below are polite, everyday spoken French. You don’t need to rearrange every sentence into a formal question to serve a coffee.

Welcoming guests and finding their table

Start with the information you need: a booking or the number of people. A greeting first makes the exchange feel like a welcome, rather than an investigation.

When you need to ask the group size:

At dinner, replace the opening greeting with Bonsoir (bon-swahr), “good evening”. Keep your workplace’s usual way of welcoming guests; a neighbourhood café and a formal dining room won’t sound identical.

If your role also involves reception or telephone enquiries, the French for receptionists guide gives you more opening phrases and ways to handle calls.

Taking a drinks order: listen for the detail

You can ask a complete question without making it complicated:

For the next person, you can shorten the question:

Listen for the quantity as well as the drink. A glass and a bottle can begin with the same confident nod from the customer. If your wine list offers several reds, use la carte des vins (lah kart day van), the wine list, to check which one they mean.

Notice the sound linking in the reply above: in the phrase meaning “I’ll bring that over”, the s of vous (voo) becomes a z sound before the next vowel. That is why the cue reads voo zah-port.

Taking a food order, then checking what you heard

Here is a question you can use once guests have had time to read the menu:

You: Vous avez choisi ?
À l’oreille: voo zah-vay shwah-zee
Have you decided?

You may also hear staff say:

You: Je vous écoute.
À l’oreille: juh voo zay-koot
Go ahead, I’m listening.

That second phrase invites the order. It doesn’t need the stern expression its English translation might suggest.

Now listen to the customer’s side:

Before you leave, check la commande (lah koh-mahnd), the order: quantities, side dishes and changes to a dish. There’s no need to recite the entire menu back to them. One question now is kinder to everyone than a surprise salad later.

A useful menu distinction: la carte (lah kart) is the menu listing dishes. Un menu (uhn muh-nü) often means a set meal, such as a starter and main together. Check how your own restaurant presents its options so you can explain the choice.

When customers change their minds or ask a question

An order isn’t always finished when you think it is. Stay for the last detail.

Catching a correction

Imagine you’ve just repeated “salad without cheese”. The customer says:

If you missed that one important word, ask about the choice itself:

You: Avec ou sans fromage ?
À l’oreille: ah-vek oo san froh-mazh
With or without cheese?

You don’t have to ask the customer to repeat the whole order when only one detail is missing.

Asking someone to repeat

For a reply you didn’t catch:

You: Je n’ai pas bien compris. Vous pouvez répéter, s’il vous plaît ?
À l’oreille: juh neh pah byan kom-pree. voo poo-vay ray-pay-tay, seel voo pleh
I didn’t quite understand. Could you repeat that, please?

Then check the detail again. A nod is very economical French, but it tells the kitchen absolutely nothing.

Checking an ingredient with the kitchen

The customer may add:

Customer: Je suis allergique aux noix.
À l’oreille: juh swee zah-lehr-zheek oh nwah
I’m allergic to walnuts.

Pass the allergy request to the appropriate colleague and follow your restaurant’s procedure. Removing a visible ingredient isn’t confirmation that a dish is suitable. Give the customer the information your team has checked; if the allergen itself is unclear, clarify that too.

Coffee, clearing the table and bringing the bill

Before clearing plates, ask:

Listen for an extra detail:

There are two drinks in that order. The decaf is included in the two; it isn’t a third coffee. And if it matters to an order, you can always check which size or preparation the customer wants using your own menu.

When you bring l’addition (lah-dee-syon), the bill:

You: Voici l’addition.
À l’oreille: vwah-see lah-dee-syon
Here’s the bill.

If separate payment is available at your workplace:

French for waiters: six quick practice questions

Read the customer’s reply, choose an answer and check what you would do next. Open the English help if you need it; try the French first.