French phrasebook

French for cafés, markets, and the metro

Hundreds of phrases for travelers and learners — bistros, boulangeries, getting lost in Paris, asking for directions in Lyon. Native audio and a one-line note on register on every entry.

10 entries ·Hundreds of phrases across 10 categories · Audio on every entry · cross-checked

You walk into a boulangerie on a Tuesday morning. The woman behind the counter says something fast and you catch maybe half of it. You smile, point at the croissant, and hand over a five-euro note. It works, but you leave feeling like you missed something. That something is usually one sentence — a greeting, a polite refusal, a way to ask if they have the sourdough today. That is exactly what this page is for.

The phrases here cover the situations that actually come up: ordering at a café counter versus sitting down at a table, buying cheese at a market stall, asking which line to take at a metro station, and recovering gracefully when you get on the wrong one. Each entry has native audio so you can hear the rhythm before you try it, and a short note on register — because vous and tu are not interchangeable, and the wrong one at the wrong moment lands oddly.

The page is organized by situation rather than by grammar. Café phrases together, market phrases together, metro and transport together. You can read straight through or jump to whatever you need before you leave the house. Within each section, entries run from the most common to the more specific.

Every translation and audio clip is checked against a native speaker before it goes live. If something sounds off to you, there is a flag link on each entry.

Browse by situation

Full index · ordered A → Z

Greetings & goodbyes Bonjour, au revoir, see you later
Polite essentials Please, thanks, sorry
At the restaurant Ordering, dietary needs, the bill
Travel & directions Trains, taxis, directions
Shopping Prices, sizes, paying, returns
Emergencies Doctor, police, theft, illness
Numbers & time Clock, calendar, age
Dating & flirting Compliments, openers, love
Family & relationships Introductions, kids, partners
Feelings & small talk Moods, weather, reactions

Frequently asked

what french phrases do i actually need for a paris café

The core handful covers greetings when you walk in, ordering at the counter versus asking for table service, and settling the bill. Knowing how to say you would like something rather than just naming it makes a real difference in how the exchange feels. This page groups those phrases together so you can learn them as a set.

is french at a market or boulangerie more formal or casual

It sits somewhere in the middle. Shopkeepers will use <em>vous</em> with you by default, and you should do the same with them. The tone is friendly but not loose — think polite and unhurried rather than stiff. The register note on each phrase flags when something would sound too formal or too familiar for the context.

how do i ask for directions in french without getting a reply i can't understand

The honest answer is that a fast native response is always a risk. The practical move is to learn a short follow-up phrase asking the person to slow down or repeat, which is listed here alongside the direction-asking phrases themselves. Locals are generally patient once they see you are making a real effort.

do french people actually care if my pronunciation is wrong

Mostly no, especially in tourist-heavy areas. What matters more is that you try and that your sentence structure is close enough to parse. That said, a few sounds — the nasal vowels, the silent letters — trip up comprehension more than others, which is why the audio on each entry is there to listen to before you speak, not after.