Category: French Lessons

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Getting Around in Paris by Metro

Paris Metro

If you travel to Paris, the chances are that you will take the metro. It is one of the cheapest (the cheapest one being walking) and definitely the fastest mean of transport. The aim of the first dialogue is to give useful phrases of everyday French in the context of the Paris metro situation. The exercises are not only meant to check the understanding of the dialogue but also make the learners do the effort of trying to find the answer by themselves. You can either look them up on simple-french website or on the Internent. The bigger the effort, the better the results. Be careful with the French names of the stations ! They can be tricky to pronounce !

In the Dialogue 2 you will learn how to buy a metro ticket. When you buy tickets, it is really straightforward. So don't worry too much about it. You will also find some challenging exercises to be fully prepared for your stay in Paris. 

Dialogue 1

Voyage en métro à Paris:

A: You B: Your Friend

  • A: Alors, on est ici, à la station Montparnasse Bienvenüe et on doit aller dans les grands magasins, aux Galeries Lafayette.
  • B: Tu sais quelle ligne de métro il faut prendre ?
  • A: Oui, ça parait compliqué mais ça ne l’est pas. Alors Il faut qu’on prenne la direction "Asnières", on descend à "Miromesnil", là c’est une correspondance. On prend ensuite la direction "Mairie de Montreuil" et on a 3 arrêts jusqu’à "Chaussée d’Antin Lafayette". C’est très simple.
  • B: Très bien. Allons acheter les billets de métro.

Paris Metro Entrance
Paris Metro Entrance

Exercises 

Exercise 1: 

 

Exercise 2: 

 

Exercise 3: Challenge 

What line numbers of Paris Metro are they talking about in the dialogue? 

Métro de Paris2 [RERTRAM]

Useful Links:

 

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French Professions and Occupations

Occupations in French

Learn how to speak about jobs and professions in French. It may come in handy when meeting new people (that's one of the questions you will be asked or you will ask) or if you are planning to work in France. This lesson will allow you to make your French small talk richer and more engaging.

Gaël est pompier. Il est pompier volontaire. C'est un pompier très courageux.

No Article Please

In French, contrary to English, you put no article before the name of the profession. So: 

  • Je suis un professeur. I'm a teacher. 
  • Il est médecin. He is a doctor. 

Remember !

When you precise things about somebody's the profession (his / her qualities), you need to add an article. However, if you are only precising the category it belongs to, there is still no artilce. 

  • Mark est un médecin exceptionnel. (quality) 
  • Marie est médecin généraliste. (category) 

When speaking about professions, you need to remember about the masculine / feminine forms of certain professions. Many of them have only the masculine form. 

  • médecin / écrivain / ingénieur / professeur
  • Marie est médecin et Joachim est écrivain

Serving coffee

Exercises

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

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French Adjectives 2 Plurals

coffee-cream

The French adjectives can also have a plural form which can also be masculine or feminine. Here are the rules that you need to apply:

Adding ” -s” to the adjective

They agree in number and gender, as usual. Normally, all you need to do is to add ” s” to the adjective in the singular.

Singular Plural
Masculine un étudiant américain des étudiants américains
Feminine une étudiante américaine des étudiantes américaines

Continue reading “French Adjectives 2 Plurals”

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French Adjectives 1

mont-st-michel

It’s really important to master well the French adjectives as they are a lot different from the English ones for example. The French adjectives reflect the gender and the number of the noun(s) they describe. The French adjective can be either masculine, feminine, singular or plural. It seems like a lot but it is not that hard. Besides there are some simple rules that apply and the truth is that even the French sometimes confuse the correct forms of their adjectives. Here are the rules:

Continue reading “French Adjectives 1”

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French Nationalities

Knowing the names of different nationalities (les nationalités) will not only allow you to tell something about yourself but also it will help you to get to know better the person you are talking to, especially if he/she is a foreigner.

Things to remember:

  • As with majority of the French adjectives, there is a masculine and feminine form for most of the names of nationalities. All you need to do is to add an “-e” to the masculine form.  Eg. français / française
    • Most of the time it will change the pronunciation  français / française (z) but there are some exceptions where it stays the same: Eg. espagnol / espagnole
    • If the name of the adjective of nationality ends with “-e”, the word stays the same. Eg. Paul est suisse. / Marie est suisse. 
  • The names of nationalities in French are written in small letters, unlike in the English language !

Names of Nationalities in French: 

French French feminine English
français française French
anglais anglaise English
sénégalais sénégalaise Senegalese
marocain marocaine Moroccan
allemand allemande German
russe russe Russian
américain américaine American
espagnol espagnole Spanish
suédois suédoise Swedish
britannique britannique British
écossaise écossaise Scottish

Names of the Countries

You may also want to learn the names of the countries in French that go with the names of these nationalities. Have a look at this lesson. 

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Exercise 3