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How to Say ‘To have a coffee’ in French

Prendre un café

prond-ruh uhn kah-fay

[prond-ruh uhn kah-fay]

💬 Usage Tip: French uses prendre "to take" for having food or drink. Swap in prendre un verre "to have a drink" or prendre un thé "to have a tea".

Phrase Breakdown

Prendre

[prond-ruh]

take

To receive or acquire.

Example

Nous allons prendre un taxi.

We are going to take a taxi.

[uhn]

Indefinite article used before a singular noun.

Example

Un petit garçon joue.

A little boy is playing.

café

[kah-fay]

coffee

A coffee; in networking, it often suggests an informal conversation over coffee.

Example

Un café après le salon permet de continuer l'échange.

A coffee after the fair allows the conversation to continue.

Guides for French learners

The Most Common French Verbs: the 20 You'll Actually UseThe 20 most common French verbs, with the present-tense forms you need, real example sentences with native audio, and two shortcuts for past and future.Ordering in French: Cafés, Bakeries and Restaurants (with Menu Vocabulary)How to order in French at a café, a bakery and a restaurant: the phrases, the questions staff ask, and the menu and food vocabulary to understand the answers.

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