Dialogue

Vocabulary (Review)

Learn New Words FAST with this Lesson’s Vocab Review List

Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.

Or sign up using Facebook
Already a Member?

Lesson Notes

Unlock In-Depth Explanations & Exclusive Takeaways with Printable Lesson Notes

Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.

Or sign up using Facebook
Already a Member?

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!

Comments

Hide