Checkpoint: leisure, shopping and clothes

The two -ir families side by side

Every -ir verb has the same singular: -s, -s, -t, all silent – je finis, tu choisis, il dort, elle sort, il part. The plural is where the families part. The big family, finir, choisir, réussir, grossir, grows -iss-: nous finissons, vous choisissez, ils réussissent. The small family, dormir, sortir, partir, servir, loses a consonant in the singular and gets it back in the plural with the plain endings: je dors but nous dormons, il sort but ils sortent, tu pars but vous partez. Say the nous form aloud and you know which family you are in. These verbs carry the weekend: sortir le samedi soir, partir en week-end, finir le travail, choisir un spectacle, dormir le dimanche.

Elles finissent le travail à six heures et elles sortent avec des collègues.They finish work at six and go out with colleagues.

Cette robe verte: the noun and everything that agrees with it

In a shop every word around the noun copies its gender and number. Before it, the demonstrative: ce pull, cet hôtel, cette veste, ces chaussures. After it, the colour, which agrees like any adjective: un pull vert, une veste verte, des chaussures vertes – with blanc / blanche as the irregular one and marron, orange as the two that never move. When the noun has already been named, the pronoun keeps its gender: celui-ci for le pull, celle-là for la veste, ceux-ci for les pulls, celles-là for les chaussures. Remember the singular le pantalon and the plural les chaussures, and the two questions of size: Vous faites quelle taille ? for clothes, quelle pointure ? for shoes. The verbs: porter what you have on, mettre what you put on, essayer what you test in la cabine.

– Tu prends cette chemise blanche ? – Non, je préfère celle-là, la bleue.– Are you taking this white shirt? – No, I prefer that one, the blue one.

From the door to the till: the shopping trip in one dialogue

Put the unit in order and you have the whole trip. You enter le magasin or la boutique: Bonjour, je peux vous aider ? – Je regarde, merci or Je cherche un pull. You give your size – Je fais du quarante – and ask Je peux essayer ? You point: celui-ci ? celle-là ? You ask the price with coûter agreed to the number of things – Combien coûte ce pull ? Combien coûtent ces chaussures ? – and you judge: c’est cher, ce n’est pas cher, c’est bon marché, c’est en soldes. At the till, Vous payez comment ? – par carte or en espèces – and you leave with la monnaie and le reçu. Every line is made of forms you already have: faire du, pouvoir + infinitive, the negation, the numbers.

– Ces chaussures coûtent combien ? – Soixante euros, mais elles sont en soldes : quarante-cinq euros.– How much are these shoes? – Sixty euros, but they are on sale: forty-five euros.