Talking about types of houses and their location
To ask someone where they live, you can use the following question:
- Tu habites où? - Where do you live?
To say where you or other people live, use the correct form of habiter (to live) followed by the type of house/flat. You can also give details about the location of your house/flat. For example:
- J’habite dans une maison jumelée dans une ville - I live in a semi-detached house in a town.
- Tu habites dans un appartement dans la banlieue - You live in a flat in the suburbs.
- Elle habite dans une maison à la campagne - She lives in a house in the countryside.
To build more sentences to describe where you live, click on the downloadable vocabulary list below:
You can describe your house using adjectives such as grand(e) (big), petit(e) (small), moderne (modern), vieux/vieille (old). Most adjectives need to go after the noun in French, but some adjectives go before the noun. These are often called the BAGS adjectives. BAGS stands for Beauty, Age, Goodness and Size, and examples of these adjectives are:
| Beauty | Age | Goodness | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| beau / belle (beautiful) | vieux / vieille (old) | bon / bonne (good) | grand(e) (big) |
| joli(e) (pretty) | nouveau / nouvelle (new) | mauvais(e) (bad) | petit(e) (small) |
Where I live - places in the town
To ask someone what there is in their town, you can say:
- Qu’est-ce qu’il y a dans ta ville? - What is there in your town?
To reply, you can say dans ma ville, il y a (in my town, there is/there are) or il n’y a pas de (there is no) and then say what there is (or isn’t) in your town. For example:
- Dans ma ville il y a un centre commercial - In my town there is a shopping centre.
- Dans mon village il n’y a pas de centre sportif - In my village there isn't a sports centre.
- Dans la ville la plus proche, il y a un supermarché - In the nearest town there is a supermarket.
For more examples on what there is to do where you live, go to the downloadable useful vocabulary list above.
My local area - what can you do?
To ask someone what they can do in their town, you can say:
- Qu’est-ce qu’on peut faire dans ta ville? - What can you do in your town?
To answer and talk about what you can do in a town, you can use on peut (you can), followed by an infinitive such as aller (to go), regarder (to watch) or jouer (to play).
- Dans ma ville, on peut aller au parc - In my town, you can go to the park.
- On peut faire les courses au supermarché - You can do the shopping at the supermarket.
- On peut regarder un film au cinéma - You can watch a film at the cinema.
- On peut manger au restaurant - You can eat in a restaurant.
Quiz
Read the following passage about where Léa lives and answer the questions in this short quiz.
J’habite dans une petite maison dans le centre-ville. Dans ma ville, il y a beaucoup de magasins et un musée. On peut aussi aller au parc et on peut manger au restaurant. Hier, j’ai fait des courses au supermarché et demain, je vais aller à la piscine.
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