| Let's look at the sentence pattern. |
| Do you remember how the character said, |
| "Then you should make a list before packing the suitcase." |
| Alors, tu devrais faire une liste avant de remplir la valise. |
| Alors, tu devrais faire une liste avant de remplir la valise. |
| This sentence follows the pattern: |
| Tu devrais + [verb in infinitive] |
| "You should + [do something]" |
| In French, when you want to suggest something politely, you can say "tu devrais," which comes from the verb devoir, meaning "to have to" or "must." |
| In this form, it means "you should," and it's always followed by the infinitive of the main verb — the action you're suggesting. |
| Here's how the line from the dialogue uses the pattern: |
| Alors, tu devrais faire une liste avant de remplir la valise. |
| "Then you should make a list before packing the suitcase." |
| Let's break it down: |
| tu, the subject pronoun, meaning "you" |
| devrais, the conditional form of devoir, meaning "should" |
| faire, the infinitive of "to make" |
| une liste, meaning "a list" |
| avant de remplir la valise, meaning "before packing the suitcase" |
| So altogether: |
| "Then you should make a list before packing the suitcase." |
| We'll also look at two other helpful patterns in this lesson. |
| First: |
| Il faut + [infinitive] |
| This is a general way to say something needs to be done, or it's necessary to do something. |
| You'll hear this in the line: |
| Il faut aussi réserver les billets tôt. |
| "You also need to book the tickets early." |
| il faut, meaning "it is necessary" or "you need to." |
| réserver, the infinitive of "to book" or "to reserve" |
| So together: |
| Il faut réserver, "You need to book" |
| And lastly, the imperative form is used for giving direct instructions. |
| You'll see this in lines like: |
| Achète-les deux mois à l'avance. |
| "Buy them two months in advance." |
| or |
| Compare les prix sur plusieurs sites. |
| "Compare prices on several sites." |
| The imperative uses the verb directly, without the subject tu. |
| It's short, direct, and very common when giving advice to friends or family. |
| Now you know how to give useful and polite advice in French using these three forms. |
| French uses different levels of formality. Tu devrais and imperative forms like Achète-les are usually used with friends or people you know well. For formal situations, you would use vous devriez or a more indirect phrasing such as "you could" tu pourrais. |
| Now let's look at some speaking examples. |
| Tu devrais prendre un sac plus petit. |
| "You should take a smaller bag." |
| Can you see how the pattern applies here? |
| Let's break it down: |
| tu, the subject pronoun, meaning "you" |
| devrais, the conditional form of devoir, meaning "should" |
| prendre, the infinitive form of the verb "to take" |
| un sac, meaning "a bag" |
| plus petit, meaning "smaller" |
| So altogether: |
| Tu devrais prendre un sac plus petit. |
| "You should take a smaller bag." |
| This sentence follows the pattern: |
| Tu devrais + [infinitive], used to offer polite suggestions or advice in everyday French. |
| Here's another example |
| Il faut vérifier les horaires du train. |
| "It's necessary to check the train schedule." |
| Il faut vérifier les horaires du train. |
| "It's necessary to check the train schedule." |
| Let's try one more, |
| Prépare ta valise la veille. |
| "Pack your suitcase the night before." |
| Prépare ta valise la veille. |
| "Pack your suitcase the night before." |
| Another one. |
| Tu devrais appeler l'hôtel pour confirmer. |
| "You should call the hotel to confirm." |
| Tu devrais appeler l'hôtel pour confirmer. |
| "You should call the hotel to confirm." |
| One last example. |
| Choisis ton siège près du hublot. |
| "Choose your seat near the window." |
| Choisis ton siège près du hublot. |
| "Choose your seat near the window." |
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