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Le serveur arrive, vous commandez un soda ?

Le serveur arrive, vous commandez un soda ?
The waiter is arriving, are you ordering a soda?
From Lesson 44:The verb to drink (boire)·French

Questions & Answers about Le serveur arrive, vous commandez un soda ?

Why does the French sentence use arrive instead of a continuous verb for 'is arriving'?
In French, the present tense covers both the simple present ('arrives') and the present continuous ('is arriving'). So, arrive translates perfectly to 'is arriving' here. You don't need a separate '-ing' equivalent in French!
Why is there no est-ce que to make vous commandez un soda a question?
This is an intonation question, which is very common in spoken French. You can turn a regular statement into a question simply by raising your pitch at the end, just like asking 'You are ordering a soda?' in everyday English.
Since this lesson teaches boire (to drink), why don't we use it in this sentence?
When a waiter (un serveur) arrives, you typically talk about ordering (commander) or having (prendre) a drink rather than the physical act of drinking it. You order (commandez) the soda first, and then you drink (buvez) it!
Is soda masculine or feminine in French?
It is masculine, which we can tell from the article un. As a handy tip for beginners, many modern words borrowed directly from English, like un soda or un week-end, default to the masculine gender in French.

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