2.3 Paying your bill at a restaurant
This section teaches you how to pay your bill after a meal at a restaurant. You will also find out about the café culture in France.
Paying your bill: using ça fait / c’est combien ?
To ask for the price of an item or a meal, you can use:
C’est combien ?
Ça fait combien ?
Ça coûte combien ?
All mean ‘How much does it cost?’. Note that Ça coûte combien ? or Il/elle coûte combien ? tend to be used for items in shops.
Il coûte combien, ce T-shirt ? How much does this T-shirt cost?
To signal that you want to pay in a café or restaurant, you can use:
L’addition, s’il vous plaît. The bill, please.
The answer will be expressed in one of the following ways:
Vingt euros cinquante.
C’est vingt euros cinquante.
Ça coûte vingt euros cinquante.
Ça fait vingt euros cinquante.
All of which mean ‘That’ll be/That’s twenty euros fifty, please’.
Activité 12
Now listen to the audio track below, paying attention to the questions and the prompts in the three dialogues. Play the role of the customer. Speak in the pauses following the prompts. To check your answers, look at the transcript.
Transcript: Audio 23
Dialogue 1
À la Brioche Dorée
(Ask how much it is, please.)
(Repeat ‘four euros fifty!’ and ask how much does one pain au chocolat cost.)
(Say, okay. Here you are then.)
(Say, thank you, you too.)
Dialogue 2
Au café
(Call the waiter, and ask for the bill.)
Dialogue 3
Dans un magasin
(Ask how much the truffle paté costs. 20 euros? Are you sure?)
(Say, good, that’s more like it.)