frenchwithash.ca French with Ash Book 1 · Chapter 3

Book 1 · Chapter 3

Chapitre 3 — Au quotidien

Everyday life

What you’ll be able to do

By the end of this chapter, you can:

Four new tools, plus your first real pronunciation work. We start training your mouth, not just your ear. We drill all of it until it sticks.

Start talking now

Read this out loud. Tap to hear it.

— Tu te lèves à quelle heure le matin?

— Vers six heures et demie. Je fais du sport, puis je vais au travail.

— Six heures et demie?! Moi, je me lève à huit heures.

— Tu as de la chance. Le matin, je suis toujours pressé.

English translation

— What time do you get up in the morning?

— Around six thirty. I do some exercise, then I go to work.

— Six thirty?! Me, I get up at eight.

— You’re lucky. In the morning, I’m always in a rush.

Now make it yours. Say what time you get up and one thing you do before work or school. Out loud, three sentences. It’s fine if you reach for a word you don’t have yet. Say the parts you can.

Words you need

Your day, start to finish

These verbs come with a little extra word (me, te, se). Store each one as a whole phrase. You’ll see why in a minute.

0/8 known
  1. se réveiller tap to flip
    to wake up English hidden
1 / 8
0 known
FrançaisEnglish
se réveiller to wake up
se lever to get up
se laver to wash up
se doucher to take a shower
s’habiller to get dressed
se préparer to get ready
se reposer to rest
se coucher to go to bed
When and how often 0/14 known
  1. le matin tap to flip
    (in) the morning English hidden
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0 known
FrançaisEnglish
le matin (in) the morning
l’après-midi (in) the afternoon
le soir (in) the evening
la nuit (at) night
tôt early
tard late
vers around (a time)
aujourd’hui today
demain tomorrow
tous les jours every day
souvent often
parfois sometimes
toujours always
ne… jamais never
The days 0/7 known
  1. lundi tap to flip
    Monday English hidden
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0 known
FrançaisEnglish
lundi Monday
mardi Tuesday
mercredi Wednesday
jeudi Thursday
vendredi Friday
samedi Saturday
dimanche Sunday

French doesn’t capitalize the days. And here’s a small thing with a big payoff: le lundi means “on Mondays, every Monday.” lundi on its own means this coming Monday. Je travaille le samedi is every Saturday. Je travaille samedi is this Saturday.

How French works here

Your routine: verbs that come with a “self”

Some French verbs carry a small word that points back to the person doing the action: me, te, se. You get up yourself, you wash yourself. English mostly drops this. French keeps it.

For now, learn your routine verbs as whole phrases. Here’s the full shape of one, se lever (to get up), so you can see how the little word changes with the subject:

je me lève
nous nous levons
tu te lèves
vous vous levez
il / elle / on se lève
ils / elles se lèvent

The little word matches the subject: je me, tu te, il se. That’s the whole trick. Most of the time you’re talking about your own day, so the form you’ll say most is the je one: je me lève, je me douche, je me couche. Learn those cold.

Je me lève à sept heures. (I get up at seven.)

Elle se couche tard. (She goes to bed late.)

On se prépare. (We’re getting ready.)

Two more verbs you’ll live on: faire and aller

After être and avoir, these two do the most work in French. Learn both tables.

faire (to do, to make):

je fais
nous faisons
tu fais
vous faites
il / elle / on fait
ils / elles font

faire covers activities. You “do” sport, you “make” the cooking.

faire du sport (to exercise), faire la cuisine (to cook), faire les courses (to do the grocery shopping), faire le ménage (to do the housework)

aller (to go):

je vais
nous allons
tu vas
vous allez
il / elle / on va
ils / elles vont

aller is for going places.

Je vais à Montréal. Je vais au travail. Elle va à l’école.

au is just à + le squeezed together (à le travail becomes au travail). You’ll get the full set of these in Chapter 5. For now, take au travail as a fixed phrase. One more thing worth knowing: aller has a second job, building the future. That’s a later chapter. Here it just means “to go.”

Telling the time

Ask with Quelle heure est-il? Answer with Il est, then the hour, then heure or heures.

Il est une heure. (1:00)

Il est sept heures. (7:00)

Il est midi. (noon) · Il est minuit. (midnight)

For the quarter and the half, French uses pieces of the hour:

Il est huit heures et quart. (8:15)

Il est huit heures et demie. (8:30)

Il est neuf heures moins le quart. (8:45, “nine minus a quarter”)

To say at a time, use à:

Je me lève à six heures et demie. Le cours commence à dix heures.

Two small things. After midi and minuit, the half is et demi with no -e (they’re masculine): midi et demi. And for schedules, stores, and appointments, Quebec and France lean on the 24-hour clock. Quatorze heures is 2 PM. You’ll learn the higher numbers soon. For now, just recognize the pattern when you see it.

How often, and where the words go

Frequency words usually sit right after the verb.

Je travaille souvent le soir. Elle est toujours pressée.

jamais (never) slots into the ne… pas sandwich from Chapter 2, taking the place of pas.

Je ne mange jamais le matin. (I never eat in the morning.)

Asking questions

You can already make a statement and say no. Now you ask. Start with yes-or-no questions. Two easy ways:

  1. Raise your voice at the end. Leave the sentence alone, lift the pitch.

    Tu travailles? Elle habite ici?

  2. Put est-ce que in front.

    Est-ce que tu travailles? Est-ce qu’elle habite ici? (que becomes qu’ before a vowel)

For questions that need a real answer, here are your first question words:

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  1. où tap to flip
    where English hidden
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0 known
FrançaisEnglish
où where
quand when
comment how
pourquoi why
combien how much / how many
qui who
qu’est-ce que / quoi what
à quelle heure (at) what time

Where does the question word go? In casual speech, tack it on the end:

Tu habites où? Tu commences à quelle heure? Tu fais quoi?

Or put it up front with est-ce que:

Où est-ce que tu habites? Quand est-ce que tu travailles?

“What” has two shapes. Use quoi at the end, qu’est-ce que at the front: Tu fais quoi? or Qu’est-ce que tu fais? Both work. Pick whichever lands easier in your mouth. There’s a third, more formal way to ask, called inversion. It waits for later.

How it sounds

Pronunciation starts for real now. Until this point, you’ve been training your ear. This is where you start training your mouth. One sound at a time. Say everything out loud, and record yourself if you can, then play it back. You’ll hear the gap between what you said and what you meant, and that gap is the lesson.

1. The French R.

The sound English speakers fear most. It lives at the back of your throat, not the front of your mouth. It isn’t the rolled Spanish R. It isn’t the hard English R either. Think of a soft gargle, or the ch in the Scottish “loch.” Relax your tongue, let the back of it lift toward your throat, and push a little air past it.

Go slow. Stretch the R out.

Don’t force it. A soft, slightly throaty R already reads as French. It sharpens over weeks, not days.

2. u versus ou.

English blurs these together. French keeps them apart, and the difference carries meaning.

ou is the easy one. It’s the “oo” in “food.”

u has no English twin. Say ou, then keep your lips pushed forward and round while you try to say “ee.” Lips out, tongue high and forward.

Now the pairs. Each one differs by that single vowel. Say them back to back and listen for the gap.

3. The nasal vowels.

You met these in Chapter 1. Now you say them. The air runs through your nose, and you stop the sound before any hard “n” or “m.” The n you see is a signal that the vowel is nasal. You don’t pronounce it on its own.

on (round and nasal)
an / en (open and nasal)
in (bright and nasal)

Say each word slowly. Feel the buzz move up into your nose. Cut the sound off clean, before the “n.”

Understand · don't produce

What you’ll hear in Montréal

For your ears, not your mouth. Recognize these. You don’t need to produce them.

Practice

Exercise 1 — faire or aller?

Pick the right verb and conjugate it.

  1. Le samedi, je du sport.
  2. Nous à Montréal demain.
  3. Tu le ménage aujourd’hui?
  4. Elle au travail à huit heures.
  5. Vous la cuisine?
  6. Ils à l’école le matin.

Exercise 2 — Complete the routine.

Put the verb in the right form.

  1. Le matin, je (se réveiller) à six heures.
  2. Tu (se coucher) à quelle heure?
  3. Il (se préparer) pour le travail.
  4. Je (se doucher) le soir.
  5. Nous (se lever) tôt.

Exercise 3 — Tell the time.

Write it out in French.

  1. 1:00 →
  2. 7:30 →
  3. 4:15 →
  4. 9:45 →
  5. 12:00 (noon) →

Exercise 4 — Ask the question.

Write one good question for each. Keep it casual.

  1. Ask what time someone goes to work. →
  2. Ask where someone lives. →
  3. Ask what someone does in the evenings. →
  4. Ask when someone goes to bed. →

Exercise 5 — Describe your day.

Write five to seven sentences about a normal weekday: when you get up, two or three things you do, at what time, and how often. Use faire, aller, at least one routine verb, and one frequency word.

se lever · faire du sport · aller au travail · le matin · le soir · souvent · tous les jours
Show a model answer

Je me lève à six heures et demie. Le matin, je fais du sport. Puis je vais au travail. Je travaille souvent le soir. Je me couche vers onze heures. Le samedi, je ne travaille pas.

Answers

Show answers

Exercise 1: 1. fais · 2. allons · 3. fais · 4. va · 5. faites · 6. vont

Exercise 2: 1. me réveille · 2. te couches · 3. se prépare · 4. me douche · 5. nous levons

Exercise 3: 1. Il est une heure. · 2. Il est sept heures et demie. · 3. Il est quatre heures et quart. · 4. Il est dix heures moins le quart. · 5. Il est midi.

Exercise 4 (one good version each):

  1. Tu vas au travail à quelle heure?
  2. Tu habites où?
  3. Tu fais quoi le soir?
  4. Tu te couches quand?

Exercise 5 (one good version):

Je me lève à six heures et demie. Le matin, je fais du sport. Puis je vais au travail. Je travaille souvent le soir. Je me couche vers onze heures. Le samedi, je ne travaille pas.

Your turn

Pick one. Both is better.

This week’s work

Flashcards. Add the new decks: the routine verbs, the days, the when and how often words, and the question words. Store each routine verb as a phrase you can say about yourself: je me lève, not just se lever. Add one card each for faire and aller (full present) and one for se lever as your pronominal model. Review ten minutes a day, both directions.

Listening. Find a clip where someone walks through their day or reads out a schedule. Listen twice before you open the transcript. Catch the times, the days, and every faire and aller.

Pronunciation. New this week. Two minutes a day on the three sounds: the R, u versus ou, the nasals. Out loud. This is the small habit that makes you sound like you’re speaking French instead of reading it.

Production. The describe-your-day task above.

Check yourself

Tick these off honestly.

If a box is empty, go back to that section before Chapter 4. Your sentences are getting longer, and your day is starting to come through in French. Keep the machine running.

Clears this chapter’s checklist, flashcards, and exercise answers on this device.

Next chapter

Next chapter Chapitre 4 — À table. You sit down to eat. You’ll order a coffee, a meal, a drink, and say what you eat and how much. That brings the words for “some” (du café, de la soupe), three verbs you’ll lean on (vouloir, pouvoir, prendre), and how to ask for what you want without sounding blunt. Your French steps out of the house and into a café.

À la semaine prochaine.