Learn how to understand directions
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| 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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