Verbes français essentiels et leurs contraires

Does “demander” mean “to demand” in French?

Demander looks like “demand” but is milder by default. It is the ordinary, neutral verb for asking: elle lui a demandé l’heure is “she asked him the time,” je peux te demander quelque chose ? is “can I ask you something?” Tone and context can still make a request firm, but the verb itself carries none of English “demand”'s insistence — for that, French usually reaches for exiger.

The pattern is worth copying exactly: demander quelque chose à quelqu’un. The person you ask takes à, not a direct object, so it is je demande l’addition au serveur — literally “I ask the bill to the waiter.” The noun mostly follows the verb: une demande is usually a request or an application, though in economics it does mean “demand” (l’offre et la demande, “supply and demand”).