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How to Say ‘I'll wave the waiter over.’ in French

Je fais signe au serveur.

zhuh feh SEEN-yuh oh sehr-VUR

[zhuh feh SEEN-yuh oh sehr-VUR]

🇫🇷 In France: In France you catch the waiter's eye or lift a hand slightly. Snapping your fingers or calling out garçon comes across as rude.

Phrase Breakdown

Je fais signe

zhuh feh SEEN-yuh

I signal / I wave

Present tense of 'faire signe'. The 's' in 'fais' is silent: 'zhuh feh SEEN-yuh'.

Example

Je fais signe au taxi.

I wave down the taxi.

Words in this phrase

[zhuh]

Pronoun used by the speaker to identify themselves.

Example

Je suis content.

I am happy.

fais

[feh]

make / do

Form of 'faire' for 'je'; with 'signe' it means to signal or wave.

Example

Je fais une réservation pour deux.

I make a reservation for two.

signe

[SEEN-yuh]

sign / gesture

A signal made with the hand; 'faire signe' means to wave someone over.

Example

Elle me fait signe de venir.

She signals me to come.

au serveur.

oh sehr-VUR

to the waiter

'Au' is 'à + le' and sounds like 'oh'. In 'serveur', the 'eu' is a rounded vowel and the final 'r' is soft and throaty: 'oh sehr-VUHR'.

Example

Je parle au serveur.

I'm talking to the waiter.

Words in this phrase

[oh]

to the

Contraction of 'à' + 'le'.

Example

Je vais au bureau.

I'm going to the office.

serveur

[sehr-VUR]

waiter

The person who serves at a restaurant table.

Example

Le serveur apporte la carte.

The waiter brings the menu.

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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