| Let's look at the sentence pattern. |
| This pattern is the structure that all of our examples will follow. |
| Subject+verb+à+PLACE+means. |
| "Subject+verb+to / at / in+PLACE+means." |
| This pattern helps us talk about where someone is going and how they're getting there. |
| Let's look at the subject and verb first. The subject tells us who is doing the action, and the verb is usually something like aller, meaning "to go." |
| The verb is often followed by à, which links it to a place. |
| After that comes the place itself, which tells us where the person is going; it could be a city, a building, a store, or any specific location. |
| In French, à can mean "to," "at," or "in," depending on the verb it follows. Its meaning doesn't exactly change — it simply adapts to the context of the verb. |
| In French, the way you express how you travel depends on whether you're inside the vehicle or on top of it. |
| For transport, you ride in, for example, a car or a bus, use en. |
| For transport you're on, like walking or biking, use à. |
| So you say en voiture "by car" and en bus "by bus," but à pied "on foot" and à vélo "by bike." |
| Let's see how a line from the dialogue follows this pattern. |
| Je vais à la Comtesse à pied. |
| "I'm going to La Comtesse on foot." |
| In this sentence: |
| Je is the subject, meaning "I." |
| Vais is the verb conjugated from aller, which means "to go." It's used here as je vais, meaning "I'm going." |
| À is the preposition connecting the verb to the place or destination, meaning "to." |
| La Comtesse is the place being referred to. It's the name of a location—likely a café, restaurant, or meeting spot. |
| Together, je vais à la Comtesse follows the pattern verb plus à plus place, and it means "I'm going to La Comtesse." |
| Then we see à pied, which means "on foot." This tells us the means—how the person is going. In this case, on foot. |
| So the sentence Je vais à la Comtesse à pied fits the pattern: |
| Subject plus verb plus à plus PLACE plus means. "I'm going to La Comtesse on foot." |
| Now you can use this structure to talk about where you're going and how you're getting there in French! |
| In French, à, meaning "to/at/in" sometimes changes depending on the word that comes after it. |
| When à is followed by le—the masculine word for "the"—, they combine to make au. So with le travail "the work," we say au travail, "to work." |
| If à is followed by la—the feminine word for "the"—, for example la bibliothèque "the library" there is no change — it stays à la. "To the library" is à la bibliothèque. |
| If the word starts with a vowel or silent "h," for example, l'école, "the school," we use à for both masculine and feminine nouns. "To school" is à l'école. |
| And when à is followed by les—the plural word for "the," for example les magasins, "the shops"—, it becomes aux. "To the shops" is aux magasins in French. |
| These contractions are required and make the sentence sound natural. |
| Now let's look at some speaking examples. |
| Je vais à la bibliothèque en bus. |
| "I go to the library by bus." |
| Can you see how the pattern applies here? |
| [ en bus]. CIRCLE the [en].] |
| Let's break it down: |
| Here, je is the subject, meaning "I." |
| Vais is conjugated from the verb aller, meaning "to go." It's the first-person singular form, used here as je vais, meaning "I'm going." |
| Next is à la bibliothèque, which is the preposition plus the place.. The preposition à means "to," and la bibliothèque means "the library." Together, this part tells us where the action is headed—the destination. |
| Then we have en bus, which tells us how the person is going — the means of transport, "by bus." En is used because a bus is something you travel in. |
| So, that's how Je vais à la bibliothèque en bus. fits the pattern: |
| "Subject plus verb plus à plus PLACE plus means." |
| Here's another example |
| Je vais à l'école à pied. |
| "I go to school on foot." |
| Je vais à l'école à pied. |
| "I go to school on foot." |
| Here you can see à accompanied by l' because école starts with a vowel. |
| Let's try one more, |
| Je vais au travail en métro. |
| "I go to work by metro." |
| Je vais au travail en métro. |
| "I go to work by metro." |
| Here, you can see the contraction au, which comes from à plus le. This happens because travail is a masculine singular noun that starts with a consonant. In French, à contracts with le to form au. |
| Another one. |
| Je vais au supermarché en voiture. |
| "I go to the supermarket by car." |
| Je vais au supermarché en voiture. |
| "I go to the supermarket by car." |
| Here, supermarché is a masculine singular noun that starts with a consonant, so we use au. |
| One last example. |
| Je vais aux magasins en taxi. |
| "I go to the shops by taxi." |
| Je vais aux magasins en taxi. |
| "I go to the shops by taxi." |
| Here you can see à accompanied by les, which becomes aux, because magasins is a plural noun. |
| In French, when à is followed by a plural noun, it contracts with les, the plural form of "the," to form aux. This contraction is required and makes the sentence sound natural. |
Comments
Hide