français · A1 · vocabulary · 4 minutes
Drinks and ordering
Order common drinks and use partitives naturally.
Understand the choice
Learn beverages with the article their normal use requires. De l’eau names an amount of water, du café can mean some coffee, and un café means one serving in a café.
Core rule: Boire states what someone drinks; prendre is very common for choosing or ordering a drink or meal.
Notice it in context
Je bois de l’eau, mais mon amie prend un café.
I drink water, but my friend has a coffee.
De l’ appears before vowel-initial eau; prend un café treats the drink as one ordered serving.
Je voudrais un thé au lait, s’il vous plaît.
I would like tea with milk, please.
Je voudrais and s’il vous plaît create a courteous order.
Vous prenez du vin ou de la bière ?
Are you having wine or beer?
Partitives introduce unspecified amounts of both drinks.
What to remember
- Jus needs its source: jus d’orange, jus de pomme, jus de raisin.
- Eau is feminine even though the article l’ hides gender: de l’eau froide.
Common trap: Do not pronounce the final consonant in beaucoup of these nouns automatically; vin, lait, and jus have distinct fixed pronunciations.