French · Beginner (A1) · Chapter 7 of 12
My day
Ma journée
Describe your daily routine in French with regular -er verbs and se lever, and ask and tell the time.
In this chapter you'll learn to
- Use regular -er verbs in the present tense
- Use -ir and -re verbs like finir and attendre
- Say when you get up with se lever
- Ask and tell the time
Listen
Élodie and Maxime, two colleagues, chat during their coffee break at the office in Rennes. They work together every day and use tu. Listen to the whole dialogue first, then line by line.
Élodie
Tu te lèves à quelle heure, le matin ?
What time do you get up in the morning?
Maxime
Je me lève à six heures et demie.
I get up at half past six.
Élodie
Six heures et demie ? C'est tôt.
Half past six? That's early.
Maxime
Oui, je travaille ici, à Rennes, mais j'habite à Saint-Malo. Je prends le train à sept heures et quart.
Yes, I work here in Rennes, but I live in Saint-Malo. I take the train at quarter past seven.
Élodie
Et le soir, tu rentres à quelle heure ?
And in the evening, what time do you get home?
Maxime
Je finis à dix-sept heures trente et je rentre vers dix-neuf heures. Et toi ?
I finish at 5.30 pm and I get home at around 7 pm. And you?
Élodie
J'habite à côté du bureau. Je me lève à huit heures et je commence à neuf heures.
I live next to the office. I get up at eight and I start at nine.
Maxime
Tu as de la chance.
You're lucky.
Understand
The present tense of -er verbs
Most French verbs end in -er in their dictionary form, the infinitive: (to work). To use one, take off -er and add the ending that matches the subject, the person doing the action. The French present means both “I work” and “I'm working”.
Good news for speaking: , and all sound the same: “tra-vai”, rhyming with “eye”. Only the and forms sound different. The subjects are the pronouns you learnt with in chapter 1.
Before a vowel or a silent h, becomes j': . And , , and make a liaison: sounds like “voo-za-bee-tay”.
| Subject | (to work) | (to live) |
|---|---|---|
| I | ||
| you (to a friend) | ||
| he / she | / | / |
| we | ||
| you (polite or plural) | ||
| they | / | / |
Reflexive verbs: se lever
Some verbs come with an extra little word, a reflexive pronoun, that points back to the subject: is literally “to raise oneself”, so “to get up”. You already know one: (I call myself).
Watch the accent: has è and sounds like “lev”, but and have no accent.
| Subject | (to get up) |
|---|---|
| I | |
| you (to a friend) | |
| he / she | / |
| we | |
| you (polite or plural) | |
| they | / |
Telling the time
Ask (What time is it?) and answer Il est… + number + . For “at” a time, use : .
Timetables, shops and many people use the 24-hour clock: is 7 pm. The minutes then come as a number: (5.30 pm). starts with a silent h, so numbers make liaisons: sounds like “duh-zur”, like “nuh-vur”.
| Time | French |
|---|---|
| 1:00 | |
| 7:00 | |
| 7:15 | |
| 7:30 | |
| 7:45 | |
| 12:00 (day) | |
| 12:00 (night) | |
| 19:00 (7 pm) |
Verbs in -ir and -re: finir, attendre
Two smaller groups of regular verbs end in -ir and -re. They work like -er verbs: take off -ir or -re and add the endings shown in the table. (to finish) and many other -ir verbs add -iss- in the plural: . (to wait for) is the model for -re verbs like (to go down). Its d is silent in but heard in .
A few very common -ir verbs, such as (to leave), (to go out) and (to sleep), follow a shorter pattern: , .
| Subject | (to finish) | (to wait for) | (to leave) |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | |||
| you (to a friend) | |||
| he / she / we () | / / | / / | / / |
| we | |||
| you (polite or plural) | |||
| they | / | / | / |
- Je finis à dix-sept heures trente.I finish at 5.30 pm.
- J'attends le train.I'm waiting for the train.
More in the grammar: French numbers: from 0 to a million · The present tense of -er verbs · Reflexive verbs: se lever, s'appeler
New words
- se leverto get up ·
- à quelle heure ?at what time?
- le matinmorning, in the morning
- tôtearly · the opposite is , late
- travaillerto work
- maisbut
- habiterto live (in a place)
- le soirevening, in the evening
- finirto finish · ,
- rentrerto go home, to come home
- versaround (with a time)
- le bureauoffice, desk
- commencerto start
- tu as de la chanceyou're lucky
Practise
1.It's 7:30. What time is it?
2.Complete with the right form of .
We work in Rennes.
3.Complete the sentence: “I get up at seven.”
I get up at seven.
4.Which sentence is spelled correctly?
5.Put the words in order.
Tap the words below in the right order.I take the train at eight o'clock.
6.Match the French with the English.
Pick a word on the left, then its meaning on the right.
0 of 6 exercises done.
Say it out loud
Je me lève à sept heures.
I get up at seven.
Listen, then say it out loud, as close to the recording as you can.
Check
Five questions on this chapter. Then mark it as finished to add its words to your review deck.
0 of 5 answered.