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

🇨🇳 Allergy awareness in Chinese cafés is improving but uneven. Saying this clearly prompts staff to check ingredients or use separate equipment, which they'll rarely do unprompted.

💬 The thing you're allergic to goes between 对 (duì) and 过敏 (guò mǐn), before the verb rather than after: 我对牛奶过敏 "I'm allergic to milk".

💬 完 (wán) after a verb means it's run all the way to the end: 卖完 "sold out", 喝完 "drunk up". 了 marks that it's now the case.

💬 完 after a verb means it's finished completely. Try 喝完了 "finished drinking" or 吃完了 "finished eating".

💬 也行 (yě xíng) after any option means "that works too", which makes it handy for accepting a substitute: 冰的也行 "iced is fine too".

💬 打 (dǎ) literally means "hit", but it covers many actions. Here it means whipping or frothing milk with the steam wand.

💬 干 here is (gān), not (gàn). 干净 (gān jìng) means clean, and 的 lets it describe the noun that follows.

🇨🇳 If you have a dairy or nut allergy, asking for a clean pitcher matters. Baristas often reuse the same one between drinks.

💬 In casual speech, 一个 often shrinks to just 个 after a verb. 新的 stands in for the thing itself, "a new one": 拿个大的 "get a big one".

💬 给您 (gěi nín) "for you" comes before the action, not after it as in English. Swap in another action: 给您做 "make it for you".

💬 The topic 糖 "sugar" comes first, then the question about it. Spoken Chinese often fronts the thing being discussed: 冰要加吗？ "want ice?"

🇨🇳 Scanning a QR code with WeChat Pay or Alipay is the default almost everywhere in China, so staff will assume it. Cash is accepted, but it can slow things down.

💬 Ending a sentence with 就行 means "that's all it takes". Put any action before it: 给我就行 "just give it to me".

💬 When the context is obviously money, the unit 块 is simply dropped, so a bare number is the price. 一 in 一共 is read (yí) because a falling tone follows.

💬 There's no word for "when" here. 好了 "it's done" placed first already implies "once it's ready", and the action follows.