Ordering a coffee Part 2 (Advanced): Options such as type of milk, depending on dietary preferences or allergies.

🇲🇽 [Buenos días] is the normal greeting in shops and cafés until around midday in Mexico. It sounds polite but completely everyday.

💬 [Quiero] is literally "I want," but in requests it can sound stronger than English unless you soften it with something like [por favor]. A more polite option you can reuse is [quisiera]: [Quisiera un café, por favor].

💬 [Pedir] is the usual verb for ordering or asking for something: [pedir un café], [pedir la cuenta]. Don't swap in [preguntar], which is for asking a question.

💬 [Café] can mean coffee in general or one coffee drink, depending on context. The [é] shows the stress goes at the end: [café] (kah-FEH).

🇲🇽 [Por favor] is common and polite in cafés, but many locals don't add it to every single line. Using it once or twice in the exchange is enough to sound courteous.

💬 Spanish often uses the full verb phrase where English might just say "a coffee": [Quiero pedir un café]. For a shorter order, you can also just say [Un café, por favor].

💬 [Quiero] is more direct than English "I'd like," so [Quiero pedir un café, por favor] is polite enough but still fairly straightforward. To sound softer, try [Quisiera pedir un café, por favor].