Swedish listening practice: at a café
An A1 Swedish listening dialogue at a café counter. Order coffee and a cinnamon bun, pay by card, and learn the fixed phrases Swedes really use.
Ordering at a Swedish café is a fixed little dance, and this dialogue is the whole choreography: the order, the "anything else", the eat-in question, the price, the card. Learn these lines and your first real-world Swedish conversation will go exactly like this.
Listen once and try to catch what the customer orders and what it costs.
Swedish
— Hej! Vad vill du ha?
— Hej! En kaffe och en kanelbulle, tack.
— Något mer?
— Ja, en smörgås med ost, tack.
— Äta här eller ta med?
— Här, tack.
— Det blir sjuttiofem kronor.
— Kan jag betala med kort?
— Ja, det går bra.
— Tack så mycket!
— Varsågod!
English
Hi! What would you like?
Hi! A coffee and a cinnamon bun, please.
Anything else?
Yes, a cheese sandwich, please.
Eating here or taking away?
Here, thanks.
That comes to seventy-five kronor.
Can I pay by card?
Yes, that's fine.
Thank you very much!
You're welcome!
Passage vocabulary
- Vad vill du ha?: what would you like? The standard counter greeting.
- en kaffe: one coffee. The drink itself is kaffet (an ett word), but when ordering you're counting cups, so everyone says en kaffe.
- Något mer?: anything else?
- ost: cheese
- ta med: take away
- Det blir sjuttiofem kronor.: that comes to seventy-five kronor. Det blir... is how every cashier announces a total.
- betala med kort: pay by card. The most useful version of the question: Kan jag betala med kort? (Sweden is nearly cashless, so the answer is almost always yes.)
- Det går bra.: that's fine, that works.
- Varsågod!: here you are, or you're welcome. One word, both jobs.