Lesson 13 — Un aller simple · A1

0

Goals

What you'll be able to do

By the end of this lesson, you can:

Buy a train ticket (one-way, return, class, price)
Ask and tell the time (24-hour official and 12-hour informal)
Name the days of the week and talk about an event (lundi prochain)
Conjugate the verb partir in the present tense (and its family)
Use simple ordinal numbers (première, deuxième)

1

Discover — At the ticket counter

Buying a train ticket

A traveller buys a train ticket from Paris to Marseille.

Dialogue — A one-way Paris-Marseille

Traveller —Bonjour, monsieur. Je voudrais un aller Paris-Marseille, s'il vous plaît. Hello, sir. I'd like a Paris-Marseille ticket, please.
Clerk —Vous partez quand ? When are you leaving?
Traveller —Mardi prochain. Next Tuesday.
Clerk —Le 15 ? Le matin ou l'après-midi ? The 15th? Morning or afternoon?
Traveller —Le matin. Morning.
Clerk —Alors, il y a un train à 7 h 18 et un autre à 9 h 22. Right, there's a train at 7:18 and another at 9:22.
Traveller —Le train de 7 h 18, s'il vous plaît. The 7:18 train, please.
Clerk —Ah, je suis désolé, monsieur. Ce train est complet. Oh, I'm sorry, sir. That train is full.
Traveller —Et le train de 8 h 46 ? Il est complet aussi ? What about the 8:46 train? Is it full too?
Clerk —Non, il y a de la place. C'est parfait. No, there are seats available. Perfect.
Traveller —Un aller simple ou un aller-retour ? One-way or return?
Clerk —Aller simple, en deuxième classe. One-way, in second class.
Traveller —C'est combien ? How much is it?
Clerk —55 euros. 55 euros.

📝 Notes

① Je voudrais… = "I would like…". A polite formula to ask for something. It's the conditional of vouloir (covered later). For now, just memorize the chunk:

Je voudrais un café, s'il vous plaît. "I'd like a coffee, please."
Je voudrais un aller simple pour Lyon. "I'd like a one-way ticket to Lyon."

② mardi prochain = "next Tuesday". For future days: lundi prochain, la semaine prochaine (next week), le mois prochain (next month). For past: mardi dernier (last Tuesday). ⚠️ Notice that French uses no preposition — just mardi, not "on Tuesday".

③ Le 15 — for dates, French says le + number + (month). Le 15 mars, le 1^er avril. ⚠️ Only the 1st is ordinal (le premier); every other day uses a regular cardinal number (unlike English, where every date is ordinal: "March 15th").

④ il y a de la place — de la place = room, available space, available seats. Not to be confused with la place (the spot, the public square).

⑤ en deuxième classe — French TGV trains have 2 classes: première classe (1st, more expensive, more legroom) and deuxième classe or seconde classe (2nd, standard).

2

Vocabulary

Words to remember

🚆 At the station

French	Type	English
un aller	n.m.	one-way ticket
un aller simple	n.m.	one-way ticket
un aller-retour	n.m.	return / round-trip ticket
après-midi	n.m.	afternoon
une classe	n.f.	class (travel class; school class)
complet (complète)	adj.	full, fully booked
un départ	n.m.	departure
désolé(e)	adj.	sorry
un employé / une employée	n.	clerk; employee
un horaire	n.m.	timetable, schedule
un matin	n.m.	morning
une place	n.f.	seat; spot; square
prochain(e)	adj.	next
quand	interr. adv.	when
un renseignement	n.m.	a piece of information
un tarif	n.m.	price, fare
une voie	n.f.	platform; track

🕐 Time

French	Type	English
une heure	n.f.	hour; o'clock
une pendule	n.f.	clock
midi	n.m.	noon (12:00) — no AM/PM in French
minuit	n.m.	midnight (00:00)

3

The days of the week

Lowercase, Monday-first

lundiMonday

mardiTuesday

mercrediWednesday

jeudiThursday

vendrediFriday

samediSaturday

dimancheSunday

💡 A few rules:

All masculine (le lundi, le mardi…)
⚠️ No capital letter in French: lundi, not Lundi (unlike English).
⚠️ No preposition: just lundi, not "on Monday". Lundi, je vais à Paris. = "On Monday, I'm going to Paris."
Lundi (no article) = "this coming Monday": Lundi, je vais à Paris.
Le lundi (with article) = "every Monday / on Mondays": Le lundi, je travaille.
lundi prochain = "next Monday", lundi dernier = "last Monday"
Le week-end = Saturday + Sunday.

In France, the week starts on Monday (not Sunday as in the Anglo-Saxon calendar).

4

Telling the time

24-hour and 12-hour systems

To ask the time:

Quelle heure est-il ? (formal) "What time is it?"
Vous avez l'heure, s'il vous plaît ? (polite, on the street) "Do you have the time, please?"
Il est quelle heure ? (casual)

To ask at what time something happens:

Le train part à quelle heure ? — À 8 heures.
Tu arrives quand ? — Samedi prochain, le 15.

⏰ Official (24h) vs informal (12h)

French has two systems — and unlike English, there's no AM/PM:
• Official (24h): timetables, stations, media. 14 h 30 = "quatorze heures trente".
• Informal (12h): in conversation. 2 h et demie, 2 h de l'après-midi.

Official time	Informal way to say it
3 h 00	trois heures (du matin) — "3 in the morning"
12 h 00	midi — "noon"
15 h 00	trois heures (de l'après-midi) — "3 in the afternoon"
15 h 15	trois heures et quart — "(a) quarter past three"
15 h 30	trois heures et demie — "half past three"
15 h 45	quatre heures moins le quart — "(a) quarter to four"
15 h 50	quatre heures moins dix — "ten to four"
21 h 00	neuf heures (du soir) — "9 in the evening"
00 h 00	minuit — "midnight"

💡 How it's written:

Official writing: 14 h 30 (lowercase h, with spaces on both sides). Note: it's not "14:30" with a colon as in English.
Spoken: "quatorze heures trente" or "deux heures et demie"
du matin (5h-12h) · de l'après-midi (12h-18h) · du soir (18h-00h)

⚠️ Trap for English speakers: "half past three" in French is trois heures et demie (literally "three hours and a half"). Don't say *"une demie heure passée" — that's not a thing. Also note demie agrees as feminine (because heure is feminine), but only after the noun: une demi-heure (half-hour, before the noun = invariable hyphenated).

5

Grammar

How French works

1. The verb partir in the present "to leave / to set off"

partir · to leave
je	pars
tu	pars
il / elle	part
nous	partons
vous	partez
ils / elles	partent

Vous partez quand ? — Je pars mardi prochain.
Le train part à 8 h 46.
Ils partent en vacances en juillet.

💡 Verbs in the same family (same conjugation pattern): sortir (to go out), dormir (to sleep), sentir (to feel/smell), servir (to serve), mentir (to lie).
Memo: they all end in -tir, -mir, -vir. The trick: drop the final consonant of the stem (par-, sor-, dor-) for the singular forms, then bring it back for the plural.

2. Ordinal numbers first, second, third…

Used for class, floor, order:

Cardinal	Ordinal	Note
un	premier (1^er) / première (1^re)	special form
deux	deuxième (or seconde) (2^e)	+ -ième
trois	troisième (3^e)	+ -ième
quatre	quatrième (4^e)	drop the -e, add -ième
cinq	cinquième (5^e)	add u before -ième
neuf	neuvième (9^e)	f → v

Le train arrive sur la première voie. "The train arrives on platform 1."
Je voyage en deuxième classe. "I'm travelling in second class."
L'appartement est au troisième étage. "The apartment is on the 3rd floor." ⚠️ In French, the ground floor is le rez-de-chaussée — so 3^e étage = US 4th floor.

⚠️ Premier is the only one with a special feminine form (première). All other ordinals are invariable in gender: la deuxième / le deuxième.

💡 Note for English speakers: French dates don't use ordinals — only le 1^er. So "May 5th" = le 5 mai (just "the 5"), not *le cinquième mai.

6

How to say it

Useful chunks

① Asking & telling the time

Quelle heure est-il ? — Il est cinq heures dix. "It's ten past five."
Vous avez l'heure ? — Oui, il est deux heures et demie. "Yes, it's half past two."

② Giving a date

Nous sommes le samedi 15 mars. "It's Saturday, March 15th."
On part lundi prochain. "We're leaving next Monday."
Le 1^er avril, c'est la fête des farces. "April 1st is April Fools' Day."

③ Buying a ticket

Je voudrais un aller (simple) Paris-Marseille, s'il vous plaît.
Un aller-retour, en deuxième classe.
Vous partez quand ? — Mardi matin.
C'est combien ? — 55 euros.

7

Practice

Try it out

Exercise 1 — What time is it? Les pendules sont à l'heure ?

Listen and write down the official time.

✏️ Write by hand and compare with a classmate.

Exercise 2 — Official or informal? Officielle ou informelle ?

Find the informal (12h) equivalent of each official (24h) time.

15 h 30 →
20 h 15 →
00 h 00 →
12 h 00 →
11 h 45 →
9 h 50 →

Exercise 3 — The verb partir Conjugation

Conjugate partir in the present tense.

Je à 8 h.
Tu avec moi ?
Le train à 14 h.
Nous en vacances en juillet.
Vous quand ?
Mes amis demain.

Exercise 4 — The days Days of the week

Fill in the right day.

The day between lundi and mercredi:
The first day of the weekend:
The last day of the week (in France):
Today is mardi. Yesterday was .
Today is mardi. Tomorrow is .

Exercise 5 — Ordinal numbers first, second, third…

Give the ordinal form.

1 →
2 →
3 →
4 →
5 →
9 →

Exercise 6 — At the station À la gare

Listen to 3 station announcements and write down the destination, departure time and platform number.

#	Destination	Time	Platform
1
2
3

Exercise 7 — Role-play Jeu de rôle

Pair work. You're at the ticket counter. Buy a ticket to: (a) Lyon, Saturday morning, return, 1^st class; (b) Bordeaux, Sunday afternoon, one-way, 2^nd class.

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Pronunciation — Numbers & the [s]/[z] sounds

Tricky finals

A. Watch the numbers Six, dix, huit…

Listen and repeat. Some final consonants change depending on what follows: six, dix, huit…

six = [sis] (alone) / [si] (before a consonant: six trains) / [siz] (before a vowel: six amis)
Same idea for dix, huit, vingt.

B. [s] vs [z] Voiced vs voiceless

Listen and repeat. [z] vibrates the vocal cords (like English "z" in zoo); [s] doesn't (like English "s" in see).

poisson (fish) [s] vs poison (poison) [z]
désert (desert) [z] vs dessert (dessert) [s]
ils sont [s] vs ils ont [z] (= ils‿ont)

💡 Tip for English speakers: a single s between two vowels in French is always [z]: maison, désert, rose. To get [s] between vowels, French doubles it: poisson, dessert, classe.