LuckyLuc

Désolé or désolée if you are female. As you know accent are important in French.

4totravel

L'addition - check (restaurant bill)

4totravel

please

ira

>Ou est la salle de bains? (where is the bathroom)?<

Or

Ou est les toilettes?

lizziea06

For clarification, VC is pronounced "vay-say"...

Michel_Paris

Un cafe, s'il vous plait (an espresso)
or, my favorite,
Un cafe creme, s'il vous plait. (a latte, sort of)

Kate_W

We iive in Paris and have noticed how important it is to use polite phrases in shops, restaurants, buses and elsewhere. I would emphasise that, when you enter a shop, first speak to a waiter, get on the bus at the front where the driver is, that you don't just say "Bonjour/Bonsoir", but that you say "Bonjour/bonsoir madame/monsieur" etc. Using a title is very important. Also, when you leave a shop, restaurant, etc, you would say "Merci, au revoir, bonne journee/bonne soiree" (pronounce the n in bonne this time and pronounce the second word journay/soiray" - approximately). The difference between bonjour and bonne journee is "hello/good day versus "have a good day".

I've also found that when I'm trying to get past someone on the street, metro, bus, etc, it's quite effective to start with "S'il vous plait" before saying "excusez-moi". The "S'il vous plait" just seems to unclog ears - and they get out of your way more graciously and more quickly.

kappa

Ira you missed my post.

That's "Ou SONT lest toilettes?". See that's because "toilettes" is pluriel.

kappa

> lest toilettes

Les toilettes, of course.

MarchMadness

Messieurs/Mesdames bonsoir

Vos commentaires sont considérablement appréciés

Merci beaucoup

If I can just learn to say hello, please, thank you, excuse me, and goodbye, and a few other simple niceties such as par le vous Anglais, I'll be happy! And of course how to get to the bathroom or toilet.

Au revoir

Underhill

One of my French teachers told me never to say "Je suis perdue," because it would mean I had lost my soul. He said to use the reflexive term instead, "Je me suis perdue," meaning "I have lost myself."

Coco???

kappa

By "perdue", you mean like égarée (Je me suis égarée) ?

Underhill

That's what the man said.

blackduff

At what time do you start saying "soir"?

Depending on what part of France, people start to "soir" in the middle of the afternoon. Other places you don't hear "soir" into well past the five o'clock.

Bonjour is clear. It's the morning. Even the bonne nuit is fairly clear when it starts to being used. But, I'm still screwing up my "soir"s.

Blackduff

BlueSwimmer

Here's another (and pardon my spelling):

Waiters will often ask: "Vous choisez?" or something similar meaning, "What have you chosen?" then you answer with your order.

Or at least this is how I interpreted it and always got some delicious food when I responded

Ronda

I have been asked at a restaurant:

fumeur ou non fumeur?

And this summer at a cafe in Paris I heard a French lady ask for the check without using l'addition svp. Perhaps something about numbers? Sorry, can't remember exactly.

pjsparlor

ttt

burqagirl

La note, s'il vous plait?

Also, when using "vouloir" in a request you would use the conditional tense "voudrais"

"Je voudrais..."
"I would like..."

tonx

This page will give you a few ideas...and a few laughs!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/yours...s.shtml#french

P.S What does "ttt" mean? I have seen it twice now.

MissZiegfeld

ronda--l'addition svp would be asking for the bill, fumer ou non fumer would be asking smoking or non-smoking (I may have spelled fumer wrong..fume?)