How to Order Coffee in Chinese

If you want to order a cup of coffee in China, actually it is very simple, only need the following 5 steps and try to make your request more clear, that’s it!

1. What would you like to drink?

When you walk into a shop, the first important sentence the waiter/waitress will ask you is “what would you like to drink?”

Nǐ yào hē shénme？
你要喝什么？

What would you like to drink?

Then you can answer to them like this:

Wǒ yào yì bēi kāfēi。
我要一杯咖啡。

I would like a cup of coffee.

2. How to say different types of coffee in Chinese?

As we know, there are many different kinds of coffee in this market. Below are some very popular names for your study:

Ps: jiātánɡ 加糖(Add Sugar) jiā bīnɡ 加冰（Add ice） Jiā niúnǎi 加牛奶(Add milk) qù bīnɡ 去冰 (Deicing)

3. Which size do you want?

A: Nǐ yào dà bēi de hái shì xiǎo bēi de？
你要大杯的还是小杯的？

(Large or small?)

B: dàbēide。xièxiè！
大杯的。谢谢！

(Large, thank you!)

dàbēi 大杯: Large Cup

zhōnɡbēi 中杯: Middle Cup

xiǎobēi 小杯: Small Cup

4. Drink here or take out?

After you order the thing you want, maybe they will ask you where do you want to have your coffee.

A: Zài zhè lǐ hē hái shì dài zǒu /dǎbāo？
在这里喝还是带走 /打包？

(Drink here or take away?)

B: zài zhèlǐ hē，xièxiè！
在这里喝，谢谢！

(I want to drink here, thank you!)

5. Payment

A: Yíɡònɡ duōshǎo qián?
一共多少钱?

(How much in total?)
B: yíɡònɡ 45 kuài 5 máo。
一共45块5毛。

(Total: ￥45.5)

多少 duōshǎo: How much. It is an interrogative to ask the number. In Chinese, we have two different way to ask the number. If the number is more than 10, we have to use “duōshǎo”. If less than 10, usually we will use “几 jǐ”. So ask the money we usually say “duōshǎo qián”. If you know the thing is only a few RMB, then you also can use “几块 jǐkuài” to ask.

45块5毛: “kuài” is the basic unit of money in China. 1kuài =100cents. “máo” is the small unit of money. 1 máo = 10 cents. But this way we used a lot in the spoken language. In written form, you will see “元 yuán，角 jiǎo” a lot.

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