Learn Hardcore French: Au café, elle commande rarement une boisson gazeuse, elle privilégie une tisane. - At the café, she rarely orders a soft drink; she favors an herbal tea.

In this sentence, Au café, elle commande… is more natural, because we’re talking about what she usually orders when she goes to that type of place, not emphasizing the physical interior.

Why is the verb commande used here? Isn’t commander “to order” only for online or store orders?

In French, commander is used very naturally for ordering food and drinks in cafés and restaurants:

Elle commande un café. = She orders a coffee.
Nous avons commandé une pizza. = We ordered a pizza.

It can also mean ordering goods (online, catalog, etc.), but that doesn’t exclude the restaurant meaning. Another very common verb in cafés/restaurants is prendre:

Elle prend rarement une boisson gazeuse.

Both are fine here; commande just highlights the act of placing an order.

Why is rarement placed after commande and before une boisson gazeuse? Could it go somewhere else?

In French, most short adverbs of frequency (souvent, toujours, rarement, etc.) go after the conjugated verb:

Elle commande rarement une boisson gazeuse.

Putting rarement before the verb (Elle rarement commande…) is incorrect.

Other placements are possible but less neutral, for example:

Au café, elle commande une boisson gazeuse rarement. (unusual / more marked, sounds slightly awkward in everyday speech)

The standard, natural position is exactly as in the sentence:
[verb] + [adverb] + [rest of the sentence].

What exactly is a boisson gazeuse, and why not just say un soda?

Une boisson gazeuse literally means “a fizzy / carbonated drink” – any drink with bubbles (with or without sugar, with or without flavor).

une boisson gazeuse = a carbonated drink (generic category)
un soda = a soda (cola, lemonade, etc.) – more specifically a flavored soft drink

So:

If you mean any carbonated drink, boisson gazeuse is broader.
If you specifically mean soft drinks like cola, orange soda, etc., un soda is more precise.

What does privilégier mean here? How is it different from préférer?

Privilégier means “to favor / to give priority to.” In this context:

Elle privilégie une tisane.
≈ She tends to choose a herbal tea / she favors a herbal tea.

Differences:

préférer = to prefer (expresses liking more)
privilégier = to favor in practice, to choose more often, to give priority to

You could say:

Elle préfère la tisane. (She likes herbal tea more)
Elle privilégie la tisane. (When choosing, she tends to go for herbal tea.)

Both are close, but privilégier sounds a bit more like a deliberate choice or habit.

Why is there just a comma between une boisson gazeuse and elle privilégie une tisane? In English we’d need something like “and” or “so”.

French punctuation is more tolerant of putting two clauses together with just a comma than English is.

Au café, elle commande rarement une boisson gazeuse, elle privilégie une tisane.

This is acceptable in French, especially in informal writing, as a kind of loose coordination of two related facts.

More “textbook” options would be:

… une boisson gazeuse ; elle privilégie une tisane.
… une boisson gazeuse, car elle privilégie les tisanes.
… une boisson gazeuse : elle privilégie une tisane.

In English, a simple comma there would be a “comma splice”; in French it’s not as strongly rejected.

What is a tisane, and how is it different from thé?

Une tisane = a herbal infusion (herbal tea), made from herbs, flowers, fruits, etc., typically without tea leaves (no caffeine, in principle).
Un thé = tea made from tea leaves (black tea, green tea, etc.), generally containing caffeine.

So someone avoiding caffeine at night might say:

Je ne prends pas de thé le soir, je prends une tisane.

In English we often say “herbal tea” for tisane, but French makes a clear lexical distinction.

Why is it une boisson gazeuse and une tisane (indefinite article) instead of la boisson gazeuse or la tisane?

Because we’re talking about a drink she orders on a given occasion, not the category in general:

Elle commande rarement une boisson gazeuse.
= She rarely orders a fizzy drink (on any visit).

If we used la:

Elle commande rarement la boisson gazeuse.
This would sound like talking about some specific fizzy drink already known in context (e.g. the one on the menu that they both know about), which isn’t the idea here.

So une is the natural choice for “a(n) [X]” in the sense of “one serving / one instance” when ordering.

Can I move au café to the end: Elle commande rarement une boisson gazeuse au café?

Yes, that’s grammatically correct and natural:

Au café, elle commande rarement une boisson gazeuse… (emphasis on “when she’s at a café…”)
Elle commande rarement une boisson gazeuse au café… (emphasis more on what she orders; au café just adds context at the end)

Both are acceptable. Placing Au café at the beginning slightly highlights the location as the setting for the whole statement.

Are there any important pronunciation points in Au café, elle commande rarement une boisson gazeuse, elle privilégie une tisane?

A few key points:

Au café:
- au = [o], like “oh”
- café = [ka-fé], both vowels clearly pronounced, final é is [e].
elle commande:
- final -e in commande is mute, so [komɑ̃d].
rarement:
- rare = [ʁaʁ] (French guttural r),
- ment = [mɑ̃]; overall [ʁaʁmɑ̃].
boisson:
- boi ≈ [bwa],
- sson = [sɔ̃]; overall [bwasɔ̃].
gazeuse:
- [ga-zøz]; the eu here is [ø], lips rounded.
privilégie:
- [pʁi-vi-le-ʒi]; the g before i becomes [ʒ] (like “s” in “vision”).
tisane:
- [ti-zan]; final -e mute.

No compulsory liaisons inside this sentence; you can say each word distinctly.