Let it snow let it snow let it snow

Triple A’s journey continue on the TGV tracks to Brest. It’s snowing heavily and they are stranded in 30 cms of snow at Lamballe. What do we do when there is nothing to do? Either we watch TV, eat or talk. Don’t we? Well! there was no TV and the food is so expensive in TGVs so Triple A and the Bretonne lady preferred to talk.

Nolwenn: Où allez-vous?

Amrita: Nous allons à Brest. Et vous?

Nolwenn: C’est une jolie petite ville. Je vais à Morlaix.

Anita: Est-que c’est une grande ville?

Nolwenn: Non, c’est une petite ville.

I will ask you to wait for a minute and try to understand the dialogue above because you are familiar with half of the vocabulary and half is new. Let’s see these examples.

Je vais à Paris.

Je vais à New-York.

Je vais à New-Delhi.

Nous allons à Rome.

Do you now have an idea what was the dialogue about? I am sure you understood. Here is the English version. I don’t like the translation but here it’s difficult to teach just by examples. Keep it in mind that English and French have lot of common words but the grammar is totally different. If you try to make a sentence then make it using whatever knowledge you gained in French please do not translate otherwise everything will be messed up.

Nolwenn: Where are you going?

Amrita: We are going to Brest. And you?

Nolwenn: It’s a beautiful small city. I am going to Morlaix.

Anita: Is it a big city?

Nolwenn: No, It’s a small town.

The new verb I introduced is ‘Aller’ that means ‘to go’. ‘Aller’ is one of the most common verbs used in French so you must learn by heart the conjugation.

Aller = to go
Je vais Tu vas il/elle va Vous allez Nous allons ils/elles vont	à	Brest Paris New-York Mumbai

What is this strange letter doing in the middle column? ‘à’ is equivalent to the preposition ‘to’. It is pronounced as ‘a’ in ‘art’ ‘dart’ or ‘part’. In French there are more than one ‘to’, different ‘to’ for different places, ‘à’ is used for cities. It’s getting complicated? No not at all it just a question of keeping your memory updated. Remember only one ‘to’ for the moment that is ‘à’.

New vocabulary

Aller = to go

où = where (Pronounced as oo in too)

Petit(masc.)/Petite(fem.) = Small, tiny