My Neighbourhood: Vocabulary and Prepositions of Place
The places in your area, the little words that put them somewhere, and the contraction that catches everyone: a cote de le cinema is wrong, and here is why.
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Où habites-tu ? 🏘️
Describing your area is one of the things you will be asked to do in every skill: what is there, and where it is in relation to everything else. That means two jobs. The **nouns**, each learned with its article so you know the gender, and the **little words of place** that put one thing next to, opposite or between the others. The second job is where the marks quietly go.
Dans mon quartier 🗂️
Learn each one with its article. The last three are marked because the specification lists them as Higher tier only:
Match each place to its meaning
- la gare
- la piscine
- la mairie
- l'usine
- the railway station
- the swimming pool
- the town hall
- the factory
Les faux amis 🪤
Some French words look like English ones and mean something else. This topic has the three best examples in the whole course: • **la bibliothèque** is a LIBRARY. A bookshop is **la librairie**. • **le magasin** is a SHOP. A magazine is **le magazine**. • **la campagne** is the COUNTRYSIDE, not a campaign. The flip side is worth knowing too: **le restaurant, le cinéma, la banque** and **le parc** mean exactly what they look like. Learn those once and spend your revision on the words that fight back.
Ça veut dire quoi ? 📚
Your French friend says: "Je vais à la bibliothèque." Where are they going?
- To the library
- To the bookshop
- To a shop
- To the cinema
Les prépositions de lieu 📍
These are the words that place one thing in relation to another:
The half that changes ⚖️
Look at that list again and you will see it splits in two. Some prepositions end in **de** and some do not, and that single fact decides whether the next word changes. **de + le becomes du**, and **de + les becomes des**. Before a feminine or a vowel, **de la** and **de l'** stay as they are.
Complète les phrases 📝
La piscine est à côté _____ cinéma. Le magasin est en face _____ gare. J'habite près _____ magasins.
Quelle forme ? ✅
How do you write "next to the park", when le parc is masculine?
- à côté du parc
- à côté de le parc
- à côté de la parc
- à côté au parc
Match each preposition to its meaning
- devant
- derrière
- entre
- loin de
- in front of
- behind
- between
- far from
Quelles phrases sont correctes ? 🇫🇷
Select the TWO sentences that are written correctly.
- Il y a un parc entre la mairie et l'école.
- J'habite près du stade.
- La piscine est loin de les magasins.
- Le bus s'arrête devant du cinéma.
Décris ta rue 🧭
An interactive activity.
Le résumé 🖊️
A library is _____ and a bookshop is _____. The countryside is _____. When a preposition ends in de, de plus le becomes _____ and de plus les becomes _____. Prepositions like devant and entre do not contract at all.
Ton quartier ✍️
An interactive activity.