Lesson 1: General Traveling

Geography

Geography Prepositions

Cities

• à is used to say in, at, to
  • Je vais à Paris. – I’m going to Paris
• de is used to say from.
  • Je reviens de Paris. – I return from Paris.
• cities that have articles as part of their names contract with the preposition if the city is masculine.
  • le Caire – Je vais au Caire. – Je reviens du Caire.
  • le Havre – Je vais au Havre. – Je reviens du Havre.
  • la Nouvelle-Orléans – Je vais à la Nouvelle-Orléans. – Je reviens de la Nouvelle-Orléans.

Feminine Regions, Countries, and Continents

• Most geographical areas are feminine
• Every French geographical area that ends in -e is feminine, with one or two exceptions.
• Every continent is feminine.

• en is used to say in, at, to for all feminine geographical areas except cities
  • Je vais en France. – I go to France.
• de is used to say from for all feminine geographical areas except cities
  • Je reviens de France. – I return from France.
• de is contracted to d’ when followed by a vowel.
  • Je vais en Espagne. – Je reviens d’ Espagne

Masculine Regions

• all regions that do not end in a slient e are mascuiline

• dans le is used to say in, at, to for most masculine regions, provinces, and states
  • Je vais dans le Limousin. – I’m going to Limousin.
• du, a contraction of de + le, is used to say from for most regions, provinces, and states
  • Je reviens du Limousin. – I return from Limousin.
• If a region is thought of or considered as its own sovereign state, au is used instead of dans le
  • Je vais au Québec. – Je reviens du Québec. (Note: This is for the province of Québec. For the city of Québec, Je vais à Québec should be used. – Je reviens de Québec.)
  • Je vais au Texas. – Je reviens du Texas.

Masculine Countries Starting With a Consonant

• all countries that do not end in a silent e are masculine
• le Cambodge, le Mexique, le Zimbabwe, and le Mozambique are masculine

• au is used to say in, at, to for masculine countries beginning with a consonant
  • Je vais au Portugal. – I’m going to Portugal.
  • du is used to say from for masculine countries beginning with a consonant
  • Je reviens du Portugal. – I return from Portugal.

Plural Countries

• aux, a contraction of à + les, is used to say in, to, as if a plural article is part of the name of a country
  • Je vais aux États-Unis. – I’m going to the United States. (pronounced aytahzoohnee)
• des, a contraction of de + les, is used to say from if a plural article is part of the name of a country
  • Je reviens des États-Unis. – I return from the United States.

Masculine Countries Starting With a Vowel

• en is used to say in, at, to for all masculine countries beginning with a vowel
  • Je vais en Israël. – I’m going to Israel.
• d’ is used to say from for all masculine countries beginning with a vowel
  • Je reviens d’ Israël. – I return from Israel.

Check For Understanding

• Are all French countries ending in e feminine?
• What geographical areas use the preposition dans le?
• What prepositions do countries beginning with vowels use?
• What prepositions does the city of Quebec use? …the province of Quebec?

Airports and Airplanes

French Vocabulary • Vacations Airports and Airplanes Les aéroports et les avions
The Airport		Baggage
l’aéroport (m)	airport (pronounced ahehrohpor)	les bagages (f pl)	baggage
le passeport	passport	les bagages à main	carry-on baggage
un chariot	a (shopping/baggage) cart	la livraison des bagages	baggage claim
les arrivées (f pl)	arrivals	enregistrer (ses bagages)	to check in (one’s baggage)
les départs (m pl)	departures
arriver (en avance/en retard)	to arrive (early/late)
The Terminal		The Airplane
l’aérogare	terminal	l’avion (m)	plane
la compagnie (aérienne)	a(n airline) company	l’appareil (m)	plane, machine, (body) system
le billet (d’avion/simple/aller-retour)	(plane/one-way/round trip) ticket	décoller le décollage	to take off take-off
la classe tourisme la première classe	coach first class	le vol	flight (also theft)
passer à la douane	to go through customs	le pilote	pilot
le contrôleur le contrôle de sécurité	security officer security check	l’hôtesse (de l’air) (f)	flight attendant
la porte	gate (also door)	le passager	passenger
embarquer	to board	atterrir l’atterrissage (m)	to land landing

Places

Nationalities

French Vocabulary • Vacations Nationalities Les nationalités
Masculine	Feminine	English
allemand	allemande	German
américain	américaine	American
anglais	anglaise	English
australien	australienne	Australian
belge	belge	Belgian
birman	birmane	Burmese
britannique	britannique	British
cambodgien	cambodgienne	Cambodian
canadien	canadienne	Canadian
chinois	chinoise	Chinese
coréen	coréenne	Korean
écossais	écossaise	Scottish
espagnol	espagnole	Spanish
français	française	French
indien	indienne	Indian
indonésien	indonésienne	Indonesian
israëlien	israëlienne	Israeli
italien	italienne	Italian
japonais	japonaise	Japanese
malaisien	malaisienne	Malaysian
mauricien	mauricienne	Mauritian
néerlandais	néerlandaise	Dutch
philippin	philippine	Filipino
portugais	portugaise	Portuguese
singapourien	singapourienne	Singaporean
suédois	suédoise	Swedish
suisse	suisse	Swiss
thaïlandais	thaïlandaise	Thai
vénézuélien	vénézuéliene	Venezuelan
vietnamien	vietnamienne	Vietnamese

Nationalities are not capitalized as often in French as they are in English. If you are referring to a person, as in an Arab person or a Chinese person, the French equivalent is un Arabe or un Chinois. However, if you are referring to the Arabic language or Chinese language, the French would not capitalize: l’arabe; le chinois. If the nationality is used as an adjective, it is normally left uncapitalized; un livre chinois, un tapis arabe.+?

Perfect Tenses

You will be learning several new perfect tenses in this level. Review the grammar behind them. This time, make sure you know all the rules.

• The perfect tenses are also called the compound or composed tenses.
• The perfect tenses are all composed of a conjugated auxillary verb and a fixed past participle.

Auxillary Verb Formation

• The auxillary verb is always either avoir or être.
• The tense of the verb depends upon the tense that avoir or être is conjugated in.
  • When the auxillary verb is conjugated in the passé composé, for example, the auxillary verb is conjugated in the present indicative.
    • J’ai fini. – I have finished.

Past Participle Formation

• -er verbs – replace -er with é
• -ir verbs – replace -ir with i
• -re verbs – replace -re with u
• irregular verbs – must be memorized

Past Participle Agreement

• The past participle must agree with the direct object of a clause in gender and plurality if the direct object goes before the verb.
  • the direct object is masculine singular – no change
    • J’ai fini le jeu. – I have finished the game.
    • Je l’ai fini. – I have finished it.
  • the direct object is feminine singular – add an e to the past participle
    • J’ai fini la tâche. – I have finished the task.
    • Je l’ai finie. – I have finished it.
  • the direct object is masculine plural – add an s to the past participle.
    • J’ai fini les jeux. – I have finished the games.
    • Je les ai finis. – I have finished them.
  • the direct object is feminine plural – add an es to the past participle.
    • J’ai fini les tâches. – I have finished the tasks.
    • Je les ai finies. – I have finished them.

Avoir ou Être?

• In most circumstances, the auxillary verb is avoir.
• However, under certain situations, the auxillary verb is être.
• This occurs when:
  • The verb is one of 16 special verbs that take être.
    • Note that when a direct object is used with these verbs, the auxillary verb becomes avoir.
  • The verb is reflexive.
    • That is, the subject of the verb is also its object.

List of Tenses

There are seven perfect tenses in French. These are:

1. Le passé composé (The Present Perfect)
2. Le plus-que-parfait de l’indicatif (The Pluperfect of the Indicative)
3. Le plus-que-parfait du subjonctif (The Pluperfect Subjunctive)
4. Le passé antérieur (The Past Anterior)
5. Le futur antérieur (The Future Anterior)
6. Le conditionnel passé (The Past Conditional)
7. Le passé du subjonctif (The Past Subjunctive)

G: Simple Future of Regular Verbs

There are three versions of the future tense in French, the futur simple the futur composé, and the futur antérieur(future perfect). The futur composé is formed by inserting the present form of aller before the infinitive, e.g. elle va réussir (she will pass, or she is going to pass) is the futur composé of elle réussit
To conjugate a verb in the futur simple, one takes the infinitive and appends the right form of avoir except for nous and vous which takes -ons or -ez, as according to the table:

Les vacances

Cet été, nous partirons en vacances au bord de la mer. Nous allons passer une semaine à Nice sur la côte d’Azur. Nous partirons en voiture et il y aura certainement beaucoup de bouchons sur l’autoroute. Nous nous baignerons le matin et je ferai des châteaux de sable avec mon fils. A midi nous mangerons puis nous ferons une bonne sieste car il fera certainement très chaud. L’après-midi, nous irons visiter des expositions de peintures ou alors nous irons dans des parc d’attractions. Vivement les vacances!

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