Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

Hi, everyone! If you’re coming to France, you will probably need to take the train or the metro and probably even in Paris. So let's have 10 phrases to survive at the station because it's pretty hard in there. It's the jungle.
1. J'aimerais aller à… “I'd like to go to…”
Then put the name of the place. Whether it's a city, if you are taking the train or if it's a metro, you might want to know more precise location. So if you can find someone at the ticket counter, just ask - J'aimerais aller à… and then they will give you the directions.
2. Est-ce la bonne plateforme pour…? “Is this the right platform for…?
Place. So if the station is really big, you will have a lot of platforms and sometimes it might get confusing so you might want to ask if you're on the right place. If it's a metro for example or a tramway, they go both directions so you want to be sure you are on the right side of the platform to get the right direction unless would go the other way then it can get tricky.
3. À quelle heure est le dernier train? “What time is the last train?”
This question sounds so Japanese. If it's a big normal train, they may have trains all day and sometimes even night trains and if you are talking about a metro or a tramway train, then depending on the cities, sometimes they finish later but around midnight is a good safe spot for the last train so try to get them before midnight. Sometimes they have some after, but that's mostly in bigger cities so you don't want to take that risk.
4. Où puis-je changer pour ...? “Where do I change for…?”
Où puis-je changer pour ...? “Where can I change for…?”
Place. I didn't change at the proper spot and ended up 250 kilometers away from where I was supposed to be. Ha whoopsy… Be sure to check that and be sure also to have enough time before trains to change. If you are going from a big train to a big train and going through a big train station or even through a big city, sometimes they have many train stations so you need enough time to go for one station to another so be careful with that.
5. Où est la gare? “Where is the train station?”
This is not a sentence to survive at the station because you're not in the station, you are looking for it. Ask your local policemen. Train station are usually indicated so it should be easy to find, but if you don't know, just ask anyone really.
6. Où est-ce que je peux acheter un billet? “Where can I buy a ticket?”
If you're going abroad from France, sometimes we have to queue at the ticket counter to get your ticket. Usually, people speak English.
7. Où sont les distributeur automatiques de billets? “Where are the ticket machines?”
In the station, duh. They’re a bit everywhere.
8. Est-ce que ce bus va à...? “Does this bus go to…?”
Place. You can ask this to the driver of the bus because sometimes again, the map for all the bus routes can be pretty tricky to understand and you cannot really be sure if you are on the right side of the road to take the right bus in the right direction so you should ask your bus driver if you're not sure.
9. Où est l'arrêt de bus? “Where is the bus stop?”
Depending on the city, you will have many bus lines so you want to find the right bus stop for the right bus line. So if you find a bus stop, it may not be your right line so be sure to check that too.
10. Le train a du retard. “The train is running late.”
It is indeed. Mostly, buses are late in France. Trains are okayish. They can depart on time. Don't expect them to be really precise, but still be on time just in case it is on time this one time. That was a lot of time, timey time.
So have you ever taken a bus or a train in France and how was it and was it on time? Tell me in the comments. Usually mine weren’t really on time. If you want to learn more French word about transportation or travel, you can check the website and don't forget to subscribe for more French words. See you next time! Have a good ride and good luck with it.

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