Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Brandon: Finding Your Way Around a French City! I’m Brandon!
Yasmine: Bonjour. I'm Yasmine.
Brandon: In this lesson final lesson of the series, you’ll learn how to talk about directions in French. The conversation takes place in the street.
Yasmine: It’s between Laura and Antoine.
Brandon: The speakers are not friends, so they’ll be using formal French. Okay, let's listen to the conversation.
DIALOGUE
Laura : Excusez-moi, où est la gare la plus proche ?
Antoine : C'est à coté. Tournez à gauche, puis dans deux rues, à droite. C'est près de la banque.
Laura : D'accord, je tourne à gauche ici, puis dans deux rues, à droite. J'ai compris. Merci !
Brandon: Listen to the conversation one time slowly.
Laura : Excusez-moi, où est la gare la plus proche ?
Antoine : C'est à coté. Tournez à gauche, puis dans deux rues, à droite. C'est près de la banque.
Laura : D'accord, je tourne à gauche ici, puis dans deux rues, à droite. J'ai compris. Merci !
Brandon: Listen to the conversation with an English translation.
Laura : Excusez-moi, où est la gare la plus proche ?
Brandon: Excuse me. Where is the train station?
Antoine : C'est à coté. Tournez à gauche, puis dans deux rues, à droite. C'est près de la banque.
Brandon: It’s close. Turn left here, then in two streets, turn right. It’s next to the bank.
Laura : D'accord, je tourne à gauche ici, puis dans deux rues, à droite. J'ai compris. Merci !
Brandon:Ok, turn left here, then in two streets, turn right. Got it. Thank you!
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Brandon: The French street system seems pretty easy to understand. Each street has a name, often named after someone important or historical, and each house and building has a number. The odd numbers are usually on the left side of the road, facing the direction in which the numbers increase.
Yasmine: And where additional buildings are inserted or subdivided, they are often suffixed with bis or ter.
Brandon:Do you ever get lost in France? It must be pretty easy to get around if every street has a name.
Yasmine: It is! I have been lost a couple of times, but as I studied in a big city which has many big and famous streets, I just needed to ask someone, and they helped me to find where I was going.
Brandon: Now it is much easier because you can also use google maps before you go anywhere.
Yasmine: That's the safest and best option in my opinion!
Brandon: Here’s a useful expression to know on this topic.
Yasmine: numérotation des maisons
Brandon: "house numbering." Okay, now onto the vocab.
VOCAB LIST
Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson.
Brandon: The first word is..
Yasmine: s’excuser [natural native speed]
Brandon: to apologise
Yasmine: s’excuser [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Yasmine: s’excuser [natural native speed]
Brandon: Next we have..
Yasmine: gare [natural native speed]
Brandon: train station
Yasmine: gare [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Yasmine: gare [natural native speed]
Brandon: Next we have..
Yasmine: proche [natural native speed]
Brandon: close, near
Yasmine: proche [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Yasmine: proche [natural native speed]
Brandon: Next we have..
Yasmine: à côté [natural native speed]
Brandon: nearby
Yasmine: à côté [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Yasmine: à côté [natural native speed]
Brandon: Next we have..
Yasmine: tourner [natural native speed]
Brandon: to turn
Yasmine: tourner [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Yasmine: tourner [natural native speed]
Brandon: Next we have..
Yasmine: gauche [natural native speed]
Brandon: left
Yasmine: gauche [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Yasmine: gauche [natural native speed]
Brandon: Next we have..
Yasmine: droite [natural native speed]
Brandon: right
Yasmine: droite [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Yasmine: droite [natural native speed]
Brandon: Next we have..
Yasmine: banque [natural native speed]
Brandon: bank
Yasmine: banque [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Yasmine: banque [natural native speed]
Brandon: Last we have..
Yasmine: rue [natural native speed]
Brandon: street
Yasmine: rue [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Yasmine: rue [natural native speed]
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
Brandon: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is..
Yasmine: proche
Brandon: meaning "Close, recent,” or “imminent."
Yasmine: Proche is an adjective and has different meanings and different uses.
Brandon: Can you give us an example?
Yasmine: Le week-end est proche,
Brandon: "the weekend is coming up." This word can be also used to talk about space, as in...
Yasmine: ...Ma maison est proche de la tienne,
Brandon: "My house is near yours," or about relations with others.
Yasmine: As in Ce sont des amis très proches,
Brandon: Which means "They are close friends." When would you not use this expression?
Yasmine: When you talk about being near someone, it's better to use près.
Brandon: That’s a synonym with almost the same meaning. Can you give us an example?
Yasmine: Je suis tout près de toi
Brandon: "I am very near you."
Yasmine: Proche is also a noun meaning “close family member” or “close relative.” For example, J'invite mes proches à mon anniversaire.
Brandon: "I invite my close relatives to my birthday party.” Okay, next we have..
Yasmine: Tourner
Brandon: meaning "to turn"
Yasmine: Tourner is a regular verb.
Brandon: When can you use this verb?
Yasmine: You can use tourner to speak about direction, for example, tourner à droite
Brandon: "turn right."
Yasmine: Or to talk about actions, as in tourner les pages d'un livre
Brandon: "to turn the pages of a book." I think you can also use it to talk about drinks that can go bad, like milk or wine.
Yasmine: That’s right! Ce lait a tourné il n'est plus bon!
Brandon: Which means "This milk went sour, it's not good anymore!" Okay, now onto the grammar.

Lesson focus

Brandon: In this lesson, you'll learn how to talk about directions and indicate location in French.
Yasmine: In the dialogue, we had Excusez-moi, où est la gare la plus proche?
Brandon: meaning "Excuse me. Where is the nearest train station?" Let’s learn more about how you can ask for directions if you are looking for a place or a building.
Yasmine: Firstly, you need to make sure you use the polite vous form to ask for directions from a stranger.
Brandon: How do we get someone’s attention so they can help us?
Yasmine: You can start by saying pardon monsieur or pardon madame.
Brandon: That means “Excuse me, sir,” or “Excuse me, miss.” You can also just say “Excuse me,” or “I’m sorry.”
Yasmine: That’s right - excusez-moi is fine. To ask where something is, you can say où est ...? or où se trouve ...? Se trouver is a reflexive verb.
Brandon: It means "to be found." Can you give us an example?
Yasmine: Pardon monsieur, où se trouve la bibliothèque?
Brandon: "Pardon me, sir, where is the library?" What other phrases can you use?
Yasmine: You can also use je cherche...
Brandon: "I'm looking for,"
Yasmine: or savez-vous où est X?
Brandon: "Do you know where X is?".
Yasmine: For example, Excusez-moi, je cherche le marché.
Brandon: "Excuse me, I'm looking for the market."
Yasmine: Or, Pardon, est-ce que vous savez où se trouve le cinéma?
Brandon: Which means "Pardon me, do you know where the movie theater is?" But what if someone asks you for directions? How do you tell them where to go?
Yasmine: To say “go straight,” you say continuez tout droit. "Until" or "up to" is jusqu'à.
Brandon: How would you use it in a complete sentence?
Yasmine: Continuez tout droit jusqu'au marché.
Brandon: Which means "Keep going straight all the way to the market." But not everyone will just need to go straight! How can we say “turn left” or “turn right?”
Yasmine: Say tournez à gauche for “turn left” or tournez à droite for “turn right”. For example, Au marché, tournez à gauche.
Brandon: "At the market, turn left." Got it. How about some more specific directions, like talking about where something is in relation to where they are, like a building?
Yasmine: Devant means "in front of." En face de is "across the street from." For example, Le café est devant le marché.
Brandon: Let’s hear an example with these elements together.
Yasmine: Est-ce que vous connaissez la place du marché? Le café est près de la place.
Brandon: “Do you know the marketplace? The coffee shop is near there.” French uses different words and expressions to provide directions, so there isn’t a specific grammatical term to refer to them.
Yasmine: We generally call them indicateurs de direction.
Brandon: Which means "location indicators."
Yasmine: They can be adverbs of place, such as là or là-bas ,
Brandon: “there” or “over there,”
Yasmine: or prepositions of place such as devant,
Brandon: Which means “in front of.” Listeners, for more examples and explanations, please check the lesson notes.

Outro

Brandon: Well, that’s all for this lesson and this series. We hope you enjoyed it and found it useful. If you have any questions or comments, please leave us a post at FrenchPod101.com.
Yasmine: We’re happy to help!
Brandon: In the meantime, thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you in another series. Bye!
Yasmine: À bientôt!

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