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French/Week 6

Questions: directions, prices, times

Magenta week. Seven question words, and enough fixed phrases to find a station, ask a price and understand the answer.

Colours live this week

10 of 10 in play
Noun

A thing, a person or a place.

Verb

An action or a state — what is happening.

Adjective

Describes a noun.

Adverb

Modifies a verb or an adjective.

Article

the / a / some — and possessives like mon, ma.

Pronoun

Stands in for a noun — I, you, he, it.

Preposition

Links words together — to, in, of, for.

Conjunction

Joins two parts of a sentence.

Question word

Opens a question — where, when, how, why.

Fixed chunk

Learn it whole. Do not take it apart.

Direction phrases stay as grey chunks. À gauche is one unit — you will never need to take it apart.

The question words

  • Où ?Where?
    Où est la gare ?Where is the station?
  • Quand ?When?
  • Comment ?How?
    Comment allez-vous ?How are you?

    Also the polite How are you — literally How do you go.

  • Pourquoi ?Why?
  • Qui ?Who?
    Qui est là ?Who is there?
  • Combien ?How much / how many?
  • Quel / Quelle ?Which? (m / f)
    Quelle heure est-il ?What time is it?

The one question word with a gender

Quel is the only question word that carries the gender style, because it agrees with the noun that follows it: quelle heure, both slanted; quel âge, both bold. The other six — où, quand, comment, pourquoi, qui, combien — have no gender, so they are magenta and nothing else. A slanted magenta word in front of a bold orange one is a mismatch you can see.

Asking directions

All chunks. Say them whole, and do not worry about what à côté de is doing internally.

  • [Où est… ?]Where is…?
  • [Où sont… ?]Where are…?
  • [à gauche]on the left
  • [à droite]on the right
  • [tout droit]straight on

    Careful: droit is straight, droite is right. One letter apart.

  • [à côté de]next to
  • [en face de]opposite
  • [près de]near to
  • [loin de]far from
  • [je cherche…]I'm looking for…

Prices, times and opening hours

  • Ça coûte combien ?How much does it cost?
  • [C'est combien ?]How much is it?

    The shorter, more common version. Both are polite.

  • [C'est trop cher]It's too expensive
  • Quelle heure est-il ?What time is it?
  • à quelle heure ?At what time?
  • ouvert / ouverteopen
    Le café est ouvert.The café is open.
  • fermé / ferméeclosed
    La boutique est fermée.The shop is closed.

Adjectives agree, and the sign tells you which

Ouvert and fermé are adjectives, so they are purple and they agree with whatever they describe — bold for a masculine noun, slanted for a feminine one. The masculine form is what you will see on most shop doors, because the sign is not describing anything in particular.

Sentence frames

  1. 1

    Je cherche la gare.

    I'm looking for the station.

  2. 2

    Où se trouve la pharmacie ?

    Where is the pharmacy?

    Literally where does the pharmacy find itself. Slightly more formal than Où est, and very common on the street.

  3. 3

    Ça coûte combien ?

    How much does it cost?

Daily mini-tasks

Listening this week

Learn French with Alexa — asking questions and directions

YouTube

Friendly, repeat-after-me pacing. Her directions video is the one to find.