Ordering food and drinks
Order politely and answer common café questions.
What you’ll work on
- Place a simple food or drink order.
- Use con and sin to adjust an order.
- Ask for the bill.
A short conversation
Google voice when available; device voice as a fallback. Read along, then try each line aloud.
Buenas tardes. ¿Qué van a tomar?
Good afternoon. What would you like to drink?
Para mí, un café con leche, por favor.
For me, a coffee with milk, please.
Un té sin azúcar y un sándwich, por favor.
A tea without sugar and a sandwich, please.
¿Algo más?
Anything else?
No, gracias.
No, thank you.
Use a short polite order
You can place a simple order by naming the item and adding por favor. Para mí introduces what you want for yourself. The accent in mí distinguishes the pronoun me after a preposition from mi meaning my.
A server may ask ¿Qué van a tomar? when addressing several people. Learn to recognize the whole question now: tomar can mean to have or drink in this context. You do not need to repeat the server’s entire structure in your answer.
Specify an order and answer questions
Con means with, and sin means without. A familiar item plus one of these words lets you make a useful request: café con leche, té sin azúcar. These phrases do not replace a detailed conversation about an allergy or dietary restriction when precision matters.
¿Algo más? asks whether you want anything else. No, gracias is enough. If the server asks ¿Para aquí o para llevar?, choose para aquí for here or para llevar to take away. Menu words and serving styles vary across Spanish-speaking places.
Ask for the bill and pay
At a table-service café, la cuenta, por favor requests the bill. Gracias is useful again when the server brings it. To find out whether you can pay by card, ask ¿Puedo pagar con tarjeta?
Practice replacing the drink and food in the dialogue while keeping the useful sentence frame. Practice saying the order clearly. Listen to the reply, and use your repetition phrases if you miss an unfamiliar question.
Lesson vocabulary
Listen once, say it aloud, and try to recall the Spanish before looking.
| Spanish | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| el café | coffee / café | |
| el té | tea | |
| la leche | milk | |
| el azúcar | sugar | |
| la sopa | soup | |
| el sándwich | sandwich | |
| la cuenta | the bill | |
| la tarjeta | the card | |
| para llevar | to take away | |
| un vaso de agua | a glass of water |
Practice questions
Try every question, then check your answers. Capital letters and punctuation do not affect your score. Accents and ñ do matter.
Showing an answer makes that question a practice item worth zero for this attempt. Retry with the answers hidden when you’re ready. If audio cannot play, use Show answer / text to practice by reading.
Independent practice
These are independent practice tasks. The site does not record your voice, save your writing, or grade open-ended answers. Ask a teacher or conversation partner for feedback when you can.
Speaking practice
Order a drink and a small meal. Answer a follow-up question, then ask for the bill.
Writing practice
Create two different café orders: one for here and one to take away. Add a question about paying by card.
Review the lesson objectives
Select the tasks you can complete independently. This self-assessment does not change your quiz score.
Your self-check selections stay on this page only.Lesson completion
You can mark a lesson complete at any time. Questions you missed stay in My review until you answer them correctly or remove them.
Progress and review questions are saved in this browser only. Clearing browser data removes them.