When you have finished this lesson you can:

• Order something to drink at a cafe

• Order food at a cafe

• Ask for the bill

With 162 liters of consumption per capita, coffee is Germany's favorite beverage (consuming yearly 4,2 kilos coffee per person). About 66 percent of Germans drink it regularly. Austrians drink an average of three cups per day (which is yearly 8,3 kilos coffee per person!).

Austrians also prefer cappuccino and many different coffee specialties. The Viennese coffee houses are world-famous for their unique coffee variations, which often carry very creative names. Here you can see some pictures of them:

wiener-kaffeehaus.at

The waiter will ask you:

When you order at a cafe or restaurant, it is courteous to say “Ich möchte bitte” to ask for, followed by your order.

Other formulations are:

The shortest way to order is to say only the thing you want to eat/drink, with "bitte":

When you get something you say:

Both verbs demand accusative. It’s the same form of the noun, but the article changes for masculine nouns. (Later you’ll learn more about articles)

Arrange correctly: Click and drag the correct form of the verb to the pronoun!

The word “bitte” is used in different situations.

When you order something you say:

Sometimes "bitte" is added at the end of the sentence to be polite.

When you give someone something you say:

"Bitte" is used a lot in German. The many meanings of Bitte are the following:

1. Please (politely asking for something)

2. You are welcome (responding to a Thank You)

3. Here you go (when handing something over)

4. Pardon?

5. Colloquially a confirmation of something predictable, anticipated, obvious

Beer is a major part of German culture. German beer is brewed according to the Reinheitsgebot, which permits only water, hops, and malt as ingredients and stipulates that beers not exclusively using barley-malt such as wheat beer must be top-fermented. In 2012, Germany ranked third in terms of per-capita beer consumption, behind the Czech Republic and Austria.

At a cafe, typically, the waiter/waitress comes to you and tells you your total. You then tell him/her how much you will pay, i.e. the amount you owe plus any "rounding up" - for example, the waiter/waitress might say "€7.60;"  you hand him/her a €10 note and say "9 Euros." S/he then will give you €1 in change. A rule of thumb is to add 5-10%, generally ending with a full Euro amount. Normally you don´t leave tips on the table.

Restaurants always have table service. Note that it is rude to shout or cut off the waiter. You can wake discreetly after a waiter or apologize when the waiter passes by. Try to be patient and discreet when you need help.

It is becoming more and more normal to give drinks at restaurants, but not at a cafe.

Gender, number and case of the article - definite as well as indefinite - depends on gender, number and case of the noun.

In German, you have 3 gender (masculine, feminine and neuter) and 4 cases (nominative, genitive, dative and accusative).

As you can see, the articles in the accusative only change for the male nouns.

Remember: The gender of the article depends on the gender of the noun.

Remember: The verbs “nehmen” and “möchten” demand accusative.

When you ask for the bill at a restaurant you can use the same sentence as when ordering: Ich möchte bitte ...

When you get the bill you say: