Where things are
🎯 Ask the way, understand the answer, and describe where something is.
🗣️ Say these out loud
- Où est la gare, s'il vous plaît ? 🔊 oo ay la GAHR, seel voo PLEH Where is the station, please? Où (oo) is 'where' — one of the five question words worth memorising today.
- à gauche / à droite 🔊 ah GOHSH / ah DRWAT to the left / to the right Tout droit (too DRWAH) means straight on — dangerously close to droite, so listen for the t.
- C'est loin ? 🔊 say LWAN Is it far? Answer: non, c'est tout près (too PREH) — no, it is very near.
- sur la table 🔊 sewr la TABL on the table sur = on, sous = under, dans = in, devant = in front of, derrière = behind.
- à côté de l'école 🔊 ah ko-TAY duh lay-KOL next to the school de means 'of', and it shrinks to d' before a vowel.
- Je suis perdu. 🔊 zhuh swee pair-DEW I am lost. A girl says perdue — same sound. Say this and any French person will help you.
Read every line aloud twice before moving on. The mouth learns a language, not the eye.
🔍 Every noun is a boy or a girl
French nouns are masculine or feminine, and the word for 'the' changes with them: le for masculine, la for feminine, l' before a vowel, les for plural. There is no logic to find — a table is feminine and a book is masculine — so learn the word and its le or la together, as one word, from the very first day.
- le livre (the book) · la table (the table) · l'école (the school) · les livres (the books)
- Never learn 'livre'. Learn 'le livre'.
- A useful hint: most words ending in -tion, -té and -ette are feminine.
🌍 Among the people
Ask directions with bonjour first and s'il vous plaît at the end, and a stranger will often walk you halfway there. Ask without them and you may get a shrug.
🔁 Practise today
- Describe your own room in five sentences: le lit est à côté de la fenêtre…
- Learn ten household nouns with their le or la, never alone.
- Give directions from your school gate to your classroom, in French, out loud.
