| Let's look at the sentence pattern. |
| Do you remember how the character said, |
| "I live with my great‑grandmother, in an old house near Montparnasse." |
| Je vis chez mon arrière‑grand‑mère, dans une vieille maison près de Montparnasse. |
| Je vis chez mon arrière‑grand‑mère, dans une vieille maison près de Montparnasse. |
| This sentence follows the pattern here: |
| chez + person or stressed pronoun |
| meaning: "at someone's place" |
| In French, chez is used to say where someone lives or is staying, usually with a person. |
| It's always followed by a person's name or a stressed pronoun, or a noun. |
| Here's how the line from the dialogue uses the pattern. |
| Je vis chez mon arrière‑grand‑mère, dans une vieille maison près de Montparnasse. |
| "I live with my great‑grandmother, in an old house near Montparnasse." |
| Here's how the line works with the pattern: |
| Je vis, meaning "I live," |
| chez, meaning "at the home of," |
| mon arrière‑grand‑mère, "my great‑grandmother." |
| So this part of the sentence means, "I live with my great‑grandmother." |
| The second half gives more detail: |
| dans une vieille maison, "in an old house," |
| près de Montparnasse, "near Montparnasse." |
| Altogether: |
| Je vis chez mon arrière‑grand‑mère, dans une vieille maison près de Montparnasse. |
| "I live with my great‑grandmother, in an old house near Montparnasse." |
| Let's keep going and introduce another pattern that appears in this dialogue. |
| Here's another common way to talk about where someone lives or works. |
| à + city or place or building — meaning |
| "in or at [location]" |
| We hear this in the line: |
| Où habites‑tu exactement à Paris ? |
| "Where do you live exactly in Paris?" |
| This structure is used for general places — cities, neighborhoods, or buildings. |
| In this example: |
| Où, meaning "where," |
| habites-tu, meaning "do you live," |
| exactement, meaning "exactly," |
| à Paris — "in Paris." |
| So if you're telling someone where you live or work in a city, à is the word to use. |
| Now you know how to talk about where someone lives and works in French — and how to say exactly where that is. |
| Let's talk about jusqu'à, a useful preposition in French that means "up to" or "as far as" a certain destination. |
| You'll hear it used in this sentence: |
| Je prends le train jusqu'au laboratoire pharmaceutique dans le sud de la ville. |
| "I take the train to the pharmaceutical laboratory in the south of the city." |
| Let's break it down: |
| Je prends le train — "I take the train," |
| jusqu'à becomes jusqu'au, a contraction of à and le, meaning "to" or "up to the," |
| laboratoire pharmaceutique — "pharmaceutical laboratory," |
| dans le sud de la ville — "in the south of the city." |
| So the structure: jusqu'à + place tells us the final point of a journey. |
| You'll often hear it in directions or when talking about commuting. |
| This is a very natural way to describe where you go for work, errands, or travel in French. |
| Now let's look at some speaking examples. |
| Elle reste chez sa sœur pendant une semaine. |
| "She's staying at her sister's place for a week." |
| Can you see how the pattern applies here? |
| Let's break it down: |
| Elle, the subject pronoun, meaning "she," |
| reste, the present tense of rester, meaning "is staying," |
| chez sa sœur, using the structure chez + person, meaning "at her sister's place," |
| pendant une semaine, meaning "for a week." |
| So altogether: |
| "She's staying at her sister's place for a week." |
| This follows the same pattern we just learned — chez is followed by a person to indicate whose place you're talking about. |
| Here's another example |
| Nous allons chez Pierre pour le dîner. |
| "We're going to Pierre's for dinner." |
| Nous allons chez Pierre pour le dîner. |
| "We're going to Pierre's for dinner." |
| Let's try one more, |
| Je travaille à Marseille depuis janvier. |
| "I've been working in Marseille since January." |
| Je travaille à Marseille depuis janvier. |
| "I've been working in Marseille since January." |
| Another one. |
| Il étudie à la bibliothèque tous les après-midi. |
| "He studies at the library every afternoon." |
| Il étudie à la bibliothèque tous les après-midi. |
| "He studies at the library every afternoon." |
| One last example. |
| On marche jusqu'à la gare tous les jours. |
| "We walk to the train station every day." |
| On marche jusqu'à la gare tous les jours. |
| "We walk to the train station every day." |
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