frenchwithash.ca French with Ash Book 1 · Chapter 5

Book 1 · Chapter 5

Chapitre 5 — En ville

Around town

What you’ll be able to do

By the end of this chapter, you can:

Four new tools, and the pronunciation work rolls on. We drill it all until it sticks.

Start talking now

Read this out loud. Tap to hear it.

— Pardon, est-ce qu’il y a une pharmacie près d’ici?

— Oui, il y a une pharmacie rue Sainte-Catherine. Continuez tout droit, puis tournez à gauche.

— C’est loin?

— Non, c’est à cinq minutes. C’est à côté du métro.

— Merci beaucoup!

— De rien. Bonne journée!

English translation

— Excuse me, is there a pharmacy near here?

— Yes, there’s a pharmacy on Sainte-Catherine Street. Keep going straight, then turn left.

— Is it far?

— No, it’s five minutes away. It’s next to the metro.

— Thanks a lot!

— You’re welcome. Have a good day!

Now make it yours. Stop an imaginary stranger and ask if there’s a café nearby. Then play the other side and point them straight ahead, then left. Out loud. A few lines is plenty.

Words you need

Places in the city 0/12 known
  1. la rue tap to flip
    the street English hidden
1 / 12
0 known
FrançaisEnglish
la rue the street
le métro the metro
la banque the bank
la pharmacie the pharmacy
le supermarché the supermarket
le magasin the store, the shop
le restaurant the restaurant
l’hôtel (m) the hotel
l’hôpital (m) the hospital
le parc the park
la gare the train station
les toilettes (f) the washroom
Getting around 0/9 known
  1. le bus tap to flip
    the bus English hidden
1 / 9
0 known
FrançaisEnglish
le bus the bus
le taxi the taxi
le vélo the bike
la voiture the car
à pied on foot
en bus by bus
en métro by metro
en voiture by car
à vélo by bike

A quick pattern. You go à pied and à vélo*, but* en bus*,* en métro*,* en voiture*. Roughly,* à for the open ways of getting around, and en for the ones you climb inside.

Which way 0/7 known
  1. à gauche tap to flip
    (to the) left English hidden
1 / 7
0 known
FrançaisEnglish
à gauche (to the) left
à droite (to the) right
tout droit straight ahead
ici here
là there
près (d’ici) near (here)
loin far

Watch this one closely. à droite is “to the right.” tout droit is “straight ahead.” One letter sits between them, and it changes the whole direction.

How French works here

il y a: there is, there are

One short phrase does a huge amount of work. Il y a covers both “there is” and “there are.” It never changes for singular or plural.

Il y a une pharmacie ici. (There’s a pharmacy here.)

Il y a deux cafés dans la rue. (There are two cafés on the street.)

To ask, put est-ce que in front, or just lift your voice:

Est-ce qu’il y a une banque près d’ici? (Is there a bank nearby?)

Il y a un métro ici?

To say there isn’t one, wrap il y a the usual way. And remember the partitive trick from last chapter: after a negative, “a” or “some” drops to de.

Il y a un restaurant. → Il n’y a pas de restaurant. (There’s no restaurant.)

Il y a des toilettes. → Il n’y a pas de toilettes.

(ne becomes n’ before the y: il n’y a pas.)

Where things are: prepositions of place

These small words tell you where something sits.

0/10 known
  1. sur tap to flip
    on English hidden
1 / 10
0 known
FrançaisEnglish
sur on
sous under
dans in
devant in front of
derrière behind
entre between
à côté de next to
en face de across from
près de near
loin de far from

Le café est à côté de la banque. (The café is next to the bank.)

Le parc est en face de l’hôtel. (The park is across from the hotel.)

Now the wrinkle. The ones that end in de (à côté de, en face de, près de, loin de) contract when de runs into le or les:

Le métro est près du parc.

La pharmacie est à côté du restaurant.

C’est en face de la gare.

Going places: aller à, au, aux

Back in Chapter 4 you met au travail. Here’s the full picture. When aller meets à plus a place, à sometimes merges with the article:

Je vais au supermarché.

Elle va à la pharmacie.

On va aux toilettes.

Tu vas à l’hôpital?

Notice the mirror. à contracts to au and aux in exactly the way de contracts to du and des. Same rule, two little words. Learn one side and you’ve nearly got the other.

Giving directions: the imperative

To tell someone to do something, French drops the subject pronoun. With vous (a stranger, or a group), take the vous form of the verb and use it on its own.

Vous tournez à gauche. → Tournez à gauche! (Turn left!)

Vous continuez tout droit. → Continuez tout droit!

That’s the command form, the imperative. For directions you mostly need a small set:

Tournez à gauche / à droite. (Turn left / right.)

Continuez tout droit. (Keep going straight.)

Allez tout droit. (Go straight.)

Prenez la première rue. (Take the first street.)

Traversez la rue. (Cross the street.)

With tu (someone you’re casual with), use the tu form, and for -er verbs drop the final -s:

Tu tournes → Tourne à gauche!

Tu continues → Continue tout droit!

You’ll usually be asking a stranger, so the vous commands are the ones to have ready.

How it sounds

We keep going. Two more sounds, on top of the R, u, nasals, é/è, and liaison from the last two chapters. Out loud, every time.

1. oi sounds like “wa”.

When you see the letters oi together, they make a “wa” sound, like the “wa” in “watch.” It turns up everywhere, including all over this chapter.

Tournez à droite has it. Je prends la voiture has it. Once your ear hears oi as “wa,” a whole pile of words falls into place.

2. Three letter combos: ch, gn, ille.

One catch worth knowing now, because it’s this chapter’s own title word. Two common words break the ille rule and keep a hard “l”: ville sounds like “veel,” and mille (a thousand) sounds like “meel.” So en ville is “on veel,” not “on vee-y.” Learn those two as exceptions and the rest of the -ille words behave.

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 — Say there isn’t one.

Rewrite each in the negative.

  1. Il y a un restaurant. →
  2. Il y a une pharmacie. →
  3. Il y a des toilettes. →
  4. Il y a un métro près d’ici. →

Exercise 2 — à la, au, aux, or à l’?

  1. Je vais banque.
  2. Elle va supermarché.
  3. On va toilettes.
  4. Tu vas hôpital?
  5. Nous allons parc.
  6. Il va pharmacie.

Exercise 3 — Where is it?

Fill in the right form of de. Watch the contractions.

  1. Le café est à côté banque.
  2. La pharmacie est en face parc.
  3. Le métro est près hôtel.
  4. Le restaurant est à côté métro.

Exercise 4 — Give directions.

Write the command (the vous form).

  1. (tourner) à gauche.
  2. (continuer) tout droit.
  3. (prendre) la première rue à droite.
  4. (traverser) la rue.

Exercise 5 — Your neighbourhood.

Write five to seven sentences about where you live. Say what’s around you (use il y a and the prepositions), then give simple directions from the metro or a landmark to one place. Use il y a, at least two prepositions of place, and one command.

il y a · à côté de · en face de · près de · tournez · continuez tout droit
Show a model answer

Dans mon quartier, il y a un parc et deux cafés. Il y a une pharmacie à côté du métro. Le supermarché est en face de la banque. Pour aller au parc, continuez tout droit, puis tournez à gauche. Le parc est près de l’école.

Answers

Show answers

Exercise 1: 1. Il n’y a pas de restaurant. · 2. Il n’y a pas de pharmacie. · 3. Il n’y a pas de toilettes. · 4. Il n’y a pas de métro près d’ici.

Exercise 2: 1. à la · 2. au · 3. aux · 4. à l’ · 5. au · 6. à la

Exercise 3: 1. de la · 2. du · 3. de l’ · 4. du

Exercise 4: 1. Tournez · 2. Continuez · 3. Prenez · 4. Traversez

Exercise 5 (one good version):

Dans mon quartier, il y a un parc et deux cafés. Il y a une pharmacie à côté du métro. Le supermarché est en face de la banque. Pour aller au parc, continuez tout droit, puis tournez à gauche. Le parc est près de l’école.

Your turn

Pick one. Both is better.

This week’s work

Flashcards. Add the three decks: places, getting around, which way. Add the prepositions of place too. Store every place with its article. Make one card for the à contractions (au / à la / aux / à l’), one for the de contractions (du / de la / des / de l’), and one for il y a. Review ten minutes a day, both directions.

Listening. Find someone giving directions, or a short walking-tour or transit clip. Listen twice before the transcript. Catch every il y a, the prepositions, and the commands.

Pronunciation. Keep it up. oi as “wa,” and the ch / gn / ille combos, two minutes a day. Keep last week’s sounds warm too.

Production. The directions task above.

Check yourself

Tick these off honestly.

If a box is empty, go back to that section before Chapter 6. You can find your way around a city now and point someone else in the right direction. That’s a big one. Keep going.

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

Next chapter

Next chapter Chapitre 6 — Le passé (1). Until now you’ve lived in the present. Time to talk about what already happened. You’ll build the past tense French leans on most, the passé composé, with avoir and a past participle. You’ll learn the handful of irregular participles you’ll reach for daily (eu, fait, pris, vu), and the words that pin a sentence to the past. You start telling stories: what you did yesterday, last weekend, this morning.

À la semaine prochaine.