Update: When you’re done here, be sure to check out this newer and longer post about ordering in French at Tim Hortons in Québec.
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You’re the next person in line at Tim Hortons — and you’re all ready to break out your French and order a coffee.
The employee at the next available cash calls out:
Passez ici!, or
Bonjour!, or
Suivant!
That’s your signal.
Head over to the cash and say bonjour or bonsoir, then:
Un moyen café, deux crèmes, deux sucres.
A medium coffee, two creams, two sugars.
or maybe…
Un petit café, une crème, pas de sucre.
A small coffe, one cream, no sugar.
or maybe…
un grand café, or
un trrrès grand café!
with…
un lait, un sucre, or
deux laits, deux sucres, or
deux crèmes, pas de sucre, or
sept crèmes, sept sucres!! (don’t do it!)
If you don’t want sugar, it isn’t necessary to say pas de sucre like in the examples above. You can say pas de sucre if you want to make especially sure that they don’t put any sugar in. For example, to order a large coffee with two milks and no sugar, you can say un grand café, deux laits, pas de sucre or just un grand café, deux laits.
A black coffee is un café noir, for example un petit café noir.
There are also short form ways of ordering. For example, if you said moyen, deux laits, the cashier should assume that it’s a medium coffee that you want with two milks, even though you haven’t actually said the word café.
The famous “medium double-double” can be said as moyen deux-deux in French.
You can use the phrase je vais prendre when you order:
Je vais prendre un petit café, s’il vous plaît.
I’ll take a small coffee, please.
Can I get a small coffee, please?
It isn’t necessary to say it, though:
Un petit café, s’il vous plaît.
A small coffee, please.
Keep reading: More about ordering in French at Tim Hortons in Québec.
If you want it black – no cream or sugar, then just “pas de creme, pas de sucre”?
Merci!
Ah! I forgot the black coffee!
un café noir
I’ll add it above.
How would you order muffins/bagels?
We could probably turn that into a new blog entry. 🙂
In the meantime, the easiest way is to just say the name of the item you want, followed by s’il vous plaît.
Un muffin bananes et noix, s’il vous plaît.
Look at the names of the items on display to know how to say them in French.
This is great. I will say though that asking for ‘no sugar’ can really confuse a tim hortons employee because they hear the word ‘sugar’ and they might think you said, “one sugar”. As someone who works at tims, I can guarantee that your chances of getting sugar in your coffee are a lot higher if you say, “no sugar”.
Do you mean in English — or also in French? It’s not necessary to say it in either language.