Exercises

Cafés and shopping

In France, un café usually means a small black espresso. For coffee with milk, ask for un crème or un noisette.

A polite request is built like this: Je voudrais + what you want + s'il vous plaît. «Je voudrais» means «I would like» and sounds softer than «je veux» («I want»).

You can ask for water for free in a restaurant: une carafe d'eau.

Je voudrais un café.zhuh voo-dreh uh(n) ka-fay — I'd like a coffee.

Une carafe d'eauün ka-raf doh — a jug of water

Directions and the station

The basic formula: Où est + a place (where is it) and Où sont + several places. The answer will come with a direction: tout droit (straight ahead), à gauche (left), à droite (right).

If you didn't catch it, ask again: «Pouvez-vous répéter ?» Everything else will be on the signs: sortie, entrée, sens unique.

Où est la gare ?oo eh la gar — Where is the station?

Small talk for a colleague

Introduce yourself briefly and say you are learning the language. This helps explain why you may need a little more time to answer.

About «tu» and «vous»: start with vous, and if the other person is friendly you can ask: On peut se tutoyer ? In many workplaces, especially in IT and startups, people switch to tu quickly.

Ça marche ! is a common conversational way to confirm something: “that works” or “agreed”.

J'habite à Barcelone.zha-beet ah bar-seh-lon — I live in Barcelona.

Ça marche !sa marsh — Deal!

Numbers up to 100

Up to 69 everything is logical: vingt, trente, quarante, cinquante, soixante, with the units added on.

From 70 on, French arithmetic begins: 70 = 60 + 10 (soixante-dix), 80 = 4 × 20 (quatre-vingts), 90 = 4 × 20 + 10 (quatre-vingt-dix).

In 21, 31, 41, 51, 61 and 71 an et appears: vingt et un, soixante et onze. In 81 and 91 it doesn't: quatre-vingt-un.

Belgium and Switzerland keep it simple: they say septante (70) and nonante (90).

un, deux, trois, quatre, cinquh(n), duh, trwa, katr, se(n)k — 1–5

six, sept, huit, neuf, dixsees, set, weet, nuhf, dees — 6–10

Politeness and first phrases

In France, start an encounter with bonjour: in a shop, café or lift. Greet the person before making a request or asking a question.

Requests are softened with s'il vous plaît, and the answer to «thank you» is de rien.

If you didn't understand, say «Je ne comprends pas» straight away or ask the person to repeat.

bonjourbo(n)-zhoor — hello

merci beaucoupmair-see boh-koo — thank you very much

Je vais au café: the verb aller

Aller means to go. It is irregular: je vais, tu vas, il / elle va, nous allons, vous allez, ils vont.

Where to: à plus the article. À la gare, à l’hôtel, but à + le = au: je vais au café. And à + les = aux: aux toilettes.

Aller also asks how are you: Ça va ? — Ça va bien. And it says let’s go: On y va !

Je vais au café./ʒə vɛ o kafe/ — I’m going to the café.

Tu vas à la gare ?/ty va a la ɡaʁ/ — Are you going to the station?