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- “a factory”: « une usine »
French Lesson Ask Directions Example sentence
“There is a factory near the train station.”
« Il y a une usine près de la gare. »
Breakdown
- “there is”: « il y a »
- « il » is the third person, like “it” (neutral).
- « y » is like “there”. « y » can be “here” or “there” when it’s contracted
The normal form is « là », e.g. « on va là »: “we go there”.
If you place it before, « on y va », « là » becomes « y ».
This doesn’t happen in English. In “we go there”, “there” never changes; “there we go”/“we go there”.
- « a » is the third person, present tense of « AVOIR »
So, it’s like “there it is”.
- “near”: « près de »
That’s another example of different prepositions. “near” is just one word but we need both « près de » in French, not to mention the article « la » in « la gare ».
« près de la gare»: “near the train station”.
- “the train station” is just « la gare ».
Usually the English is more concise but there are exceptions like this one.
We don’t say « la gare de train », it’s implicit.
If you visit Paris by train from London, say, you’ll be familiar with « la Gare du Nord », “the Nothern train station”. This is where you will get off when you take the Eurostar train and it’s also where you will go to visit « le Sacré-Cœur », the big white basilica.
Quick tip: How to buy tickets
If you want to ask for tickets here’s what you do:
- « Je voudrais acheter un billet aller-retour »: “I would like to buy a return ticket”
- “a one-way ticket” is « un aller simple ».
Quick tip: “a factory”
You can also say “a plant” for “a factory” in English.
But there’s only one good word in French and that’s « une usine ».
You may say “a production site”: « un site the production ».
“a business unit” is the same: « une business unit ». It’s a borrowed word.
Grammar point: « il y a »
In English, “there is”/“there are” are used depending on whether it’s singular or plural, but in French there’s only one
phrase, « il y a », which never changes.
For more Business French Lesson Ask Directions with a twist check this one out here – or of course get a lot of free French lessons for BSiness at the Institut de France, which we love here
