Can you stow your bag?

English: Can you stow your bag?

French: Pouvez-vous ranger votre sac?

Flight attendants are in charge of cabin safety. Part of that task is to ask passengers to stow their bags, turn off their electronics, stow their table trays, etc. for take-off and landing.

Just like in English, there are several ways in French to politely ask someone to do something.

One way is to ask "can you?" "pouvez-vous?"

"Pouvez-vous ranger votre sac SVP?"

Vous pouvez=you can

Pouvez-vous?=can you?

Ranger=stow

Votre sac=your bag

SVP (s'il vous plaît)=please

More importantly, remember that politeness is also communicated non-verbally, through body language, facial expressions, voice intonation, etc. Thus, it's equally, if not more important to communicate politeness through your smile, eye-contact, body language, and voice tone, as you ask them "pouvez-vous ranger votre sac SVP?"

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All done? Finished? Take your time.

English: All done? Finished? Take your time.

French: Terminé? Prenez votre temps.

After service, you're collecting meal trays and drink cups. You may not be sure if the passenger is done with their food or drink. So you can ask politely "all done?" or "finished?" In French, we can ask "terminé?" literally "terminated?"

If they're still working on it, then you can encourage them to take their time. "Prenez votre temps" "take your time."

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Cream, milk, sugar, sweetener, black

English: Cream, milk, sugar, sweetener, black

French: Crème(f), lait(m), sucre(m), édulcorant(m)/sucrette(f), noir

Some take their coffee or tea black and say to you "café noir" or "thé noir" or just "black" "noir".

Others take cream, milk, sugar, and/or sweetener. On a plane, these usually come in little sugar packets and small single containers of cream or milk. Thus, passengers may specify "one cream and two sugars" "une crème et deux sucres."

"Édulcorant" and "sucrette" are the French terms for "artificial sweetener." In our experience, passengers rarely use these terms in French. They usually just ask if you have a certain brand of sweetener. For example: "Do you have Splenda/Sweet'n Low/Equal?" "Avez-vous du Splenda/Sweet'n Low/Equal?"

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