Aller à et chez

Use aller to say where you go. With many places, French uses à plus the place: Je vais à la gare. With masculine places beginning with a consonant, à + le becomes au: Je vais au lac. With plural places, à + les becomes aux: Je vais aux toilettes.

Use chez for a person, or for the home or workplace of a person: Je vais chez Mme Martin, Je vais chez le médecin. This is different from à la gare or au marché, which are places, not people.

For countries, use en with many feminine countries and with masculine countries starting with a vowel: en Allemagne. Use au with many masculine countries: au Canada. Use aux with plural countries: aux États-Unis.

With transport, French often uses en for enclosed transport like en train and en bus, but à for à pied and à vélo.

Les quantités avec de

After a quantity expression, French normally uses de: un kilo de tomates, deux kilos de pommes de terre, beaucoup de poisson, une bouteille de lait.

This is true even when the noun is plural: dix kilos de pommes. The quantity word carries the main meaning, and de links it to the thing.

A very useful chunk is il faut... for 'you need / it is necessary'. At this level, learn it as a fixed expression: Il faut un billet, Il faut deux kilos de pommes de terre.

Some quantity expressions are very common in shops and markets: un kilo de, un demi-kilo de, une bouteille de, un peu de, beaucoup de.

En train / à vélo / notre

Use en train, en bus and en voiture for common transport, but à vélo and à pied. Timetables use twenty-four-hour readings: neuf heures douze, dix-sept heures quarante. A return ticket is un aller-retour.

Our and our (plural)

Use notre with one singular noun: notre plan, notre carte, notre train. Use nos with plural nouns: nos billets, nos pommes.

Like mon/ma/mes and votre/vos, these words agree with the thing owned, not with the owner. So notre maison is singular because maison is singular, and nos amis is plural because amis is plural.

French often uses these words in everyday talk about shared things: notre café, notre ville, nos places. They are very frequent and worth learning early.

At this level, the most useful contrast is simple: one thing = notre; more than one thing = nos.

Pouvoir, savoir, connaître

Ability, permission and skills

Use pouvoir + infinitive to say that someone can do something, or that something is possible: Je peux entendre, Vous pouvez acheter deux billets ? It is also useful for permission: Je peux entrer ?

Use savoir for knowing a fact or knowing how to do something: Je sais tout, Je sais où est la gare. At this level, you will often see it with question words: Je sais où, Je ne sais pas quand.

Use connaître for being familiar with a person or a place: Je connais Félix, Je connais le chemin. Do not use savoir for knowing a person.

These three verbs are common and useful, but they are irregular. Learn the forms as chunks: je peux, vous pouvez, je sais, vous savez, je connais.

Aller et aller + infinitif

The verb aller means 'to go': je vais, tu vas, il va, nous allons, vous allez, ils vont. It is also very common in directions: Vous allez à droite, Nous allons à la gare.

French also uses aller + infinitive for the near future, very often in speech: Je vais acheter deux billets, Nous allons suivre Félix. This usually means 'going to do something'.

For maps and directions, French often combines aller with place expressions: aller tout droit, aller à gauche, aller au coin, aller jusqu'à la gare.

At A1 level, learn very useful chunks for movement: allez tout droit, tournez à gauche, nous allons partir. Some direction commands like tournez are fixed phrases you can use even before learning every detail.