In this lesson you will learn how to approach people in the street and ask politely for information. You will learn the vocabulary related to travel and you will also be introduced to the French conditional. The content of this lesson corresponds to A2 CEFR level of French. Enjoy ! Asking for information = demander des renseignements
Dialogue
[responsivevoice voice=”French Female” buttontext=”Listen to this”]
| Excusez-moi, je suis perdu. Pourriez-vous m’aider, s’il-vous-plaît ? |
| Bien sûr ! Comment je peux vous aider ? |
| Pourriez-vous me montrer sur la carte où je suis? |
| Nous sommes ici, à cet endroit. |
| D'accord. Merci beaucoup. |
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Vocabulary
| Keywords | |
| French | English |
| perdre | to lose |
| bien sûr | of course |
| pouvoir | can / be able to |
| aider | to help |
| montrer | to show |
| la carte | the map |
| endroit | place / spot |
| d’accord | OK / all right |
| perdre. |
| bien sûr. |
| pouvoir. |
| aider. |
| montrer. |
| la carte. |
| endroit. |
| d’accord. |
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Grammar
French conditional
Just as in English, the French conditional is used, among other things, to express politeness. “Pourriez-vous m’aider, s’il-vous-plaît ?” from our short dialogue, could be as well expressed by “Pouvez-vous m’aider, s’il-vous-plaît ?” (Can you help me, please ?). As a tourist you can use both, as such small “blunders” will be easily forgiven and understood. But it is always better to be polite and well mannered and use the conditional form. “Pourriez-vous” form is of course the polite “vouvoiement” /vuvwamɑ̃/ form, that is using “vous” instead of “tu” when talking to the people we don’t know or people who are older than us.
Conjugation of the Present Conditional
The Present Conditional of the verb “pouvoir”
| je | pourrais | These are pronounced exactly the same. |
| tu | pourrais | |
| il, elle, on | pourrait | |
| nous | pourrions | Here you have the distinctive “ i “ sound in the pronunciation |
| vous | pourriez | |
| ils, elles | pourraient | Pronounced exactly the same as the first three (je, tu, il / elle / on) |
[responsivevoice voice=”French Female” buttontext=”Listen to this”]
| je | pourrais |
| tu | pourrais |
| il | pourrait |
| nous | pourrions |
| vous | pourriez |
| ils | pourraient |
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great work. Thank you very much!