Lesson 10 — À bicyclette · A2

0

Goals

What you'll be able to do

🚲 Read an information leaflet (Paris's Vélib' bike-share)
💬 Understand a street-interview ("micro-trottoir") on Vélib'
📊 Compare with the comparative (with adj. / adv. / noun / verb)
🎒 Use the possessive pronouns (le mien, la sienne, les nôtres…)
🎵 Tell apart [o] and [ɔ] (« vélo » vs « port »)

1

Discover · Vélib', the city by bike

Paris bike-sharing

🚲 Vélib' — La ville est plus belle à vélo · Mairie de Paris

Comment ça marche ? — How does it work?

📍 How to use it

Pick up a bike at one station and drop it off at another. Vélib' is a self-service rental system that's very simple to use.

🅿️ The stations

Available 24/7, with a Vélib' station roughly every 300 metres.

🚴 The bikes

Thousands of bikes are available across more than 1,400 stations.

💳 Subscription

1 year: €29 · 7 days: €5 · 1 day: €1

💰 Rates

1st half-hour: free · 2nd half-hour: €1 · 3rd half-hour: €2.
After 2 hours: €4 per extra half-hour.

1.1 · By bike, what's it like?

According to the document, true or false?

Vélib' is a rental system that requires a 1-year subscription.
You can drop the bike off at a different station from where you took it.
Vélib' stations don't operate on Sundays.
There are more than 1,400 stations in Paris.
The first half-hour is free.
The day pass costs €1.

1.2 · Your opinion · Street interview

🎧 Listen to 4 Parisians give their opinion on Vélib':

Is each speaker's opinion favourable, unfavourable or neutral?

Speaker 1 (sport, quality of life, calmer)
Speaker 2 (prefers the métro, her husband uses his)
Speaker 3 (prefers the car — bike is dangerous and tiring)
Speaker 4 (great, perfect for exercise, more freedom)

Fill in with the right comparative word:

Vélib' produces pollution than cars. ("less")
People on bikes are calm (and smile more). ("more")
For quality of life, it's than the car in the city. ("better" — feminine, agrees with la qualité)

2

Vocabulary

Words to remember

French	Type	English
une bicyclette	n.f.	bicycle (slightly formal — vélo is the everyday word)
un abonnement	n.m.	subscription, membership
dangereux / dangereuse	adj.	dangerous
une demi-heure	n.f.	half an hour
déposer	v.t.	to drop off, to leave
disponible	adj.	available
également	adv.	also, equally
environ	adv.	about, approximately
fatigant(e)	adj.	tiring
libre-service	n.m. / adj.	self-service
la mairie	n.f.	city hall, town hall
un millier	n.m.	about a thousand
la qualité de vie	n.f.	quality of life
une station	n.f.	station, docking station
supplémentaire	adj.	extra, additional
un système	n.m.	system
les transports en commun	n.m. pl.	public transport / transit
l'utilisation	n.f.	use, usage

📊 Approximate quantities

une dizaine (about 10) · une douzaine (a dozen) · une centaine (about 100) · un millier (about 1,000) · un million (a million) · un milliard (a billion)
Ex: des milliers de vélos "thousands of bikes" · des centaines de stations "hundreds of stations". Note the de after these quantities.

3

Grammar

How French works

3.1 · The comparative — adjectives and adverbs

French builds the comparative with three little words: plus (more), aussi (as), moins (less). English has its own twist with -er ("taller, faster") — French doesn't. Just stick plus / aussi / moins in front.

Form	With an adjective	With an adverb
+ more	plus grand que ("taller than")	plus vite que ("faster than")
= as	aussi grand que ("as tall as")	aussi vite que
− less	moins grand que ("less tall than" / "shorter than")	moins vite que

With a noun (quantity): plus de / autant de / moins de + noun + que

Il y a plus de vélos qu'avant. "There are more bikes than before."
Il y a autant de stations dans le 5^e que dans le 6^e. "as many stations… as…"

With a verb: verb + plus / autant / moins (que)

À vélo, on travaille les jambes plus que dans le bus. "On a bike, you exercise your legs more than on the bus."

⚠️ Irregular forms — anglophone trap:

bon(ne) → meilleur(e) (NOT plus bon!) — same as English "good → better".
Pour la qualité de vie, c'est meilleur.
bien → mieux (NOT plus bien!) — same as English "well → better".
Tu cuisines mieux que moi.
mauvais → pire (or plus mauvais) — like "bad → worse".

👉 Remember the English-French pair: good/better = bon/meilleur, well/better = bien/mieux. French keeps adjective vs adverb separate; English collapses both into "better".

3.2 · Possessive pronouns

Possessive pronouns replace possessive adjective + noun. They take the gender and number of the noun they replace. English has it easy: "mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs" — no agreement. French agrees with what is owned.

Possessor	Masc. sg.	Fem. sg.	Masc. pl.	Fem. pl.
je (my → mine)	le mien	la mienne	les miens	les miennes
tu (your → yours)	le tien	la tienne	les tiens	les tiennes
il/elle (his / hers)	le sien	la sienne	les siens	les siennes
nous (our → ours)	le / la nôtre		les nôtres
vous (your → yours)	le / la vôtre		les vôtres
ils/elles (their → theirs)	le / la leur		les leurs

Examples:

— Tu as ton vélo ? — Oui, j'ai le mien. Et toi ? "Got your bike? — Yes, I've got mine. You?"
Mon mari prend le sien pour aller travailler. "My husband takes his (= his bike) to go to work." Note: le sien here = his, not "her" — French son/sa/ses/le sien agrees with the OBJECT (vélo = m.), NOT with the owner.
Notre quartier est plus calme que le leur. "Our neighbourhood is quieter than theirs."

⚠️ Anglophone confusion: in English, "his" vs "her" tells you the owner's gender. In French, le sien / la sienne tells you the OBJECT's gender, not the owner's. Both a man and a woman would say « c'est sa voiture » = "his/her car" — context tells you whose.

⚠️ Watch the circumflex: le nôtre / le vôtre (with ^) — vs the possessive adjectives notre / votre (no accent). The accent isn't decoration — it changes the vowel sound: [nɔtʁ] (adjective, open o) vs [notʁ] (pronoun, closed o).

4

Practice

Try it out

4.1 · Winter sports Possessive pronouns

Fill in with a possessive pronoun.

— Et Lucie ? Elle a acheté ses skis ? — Oui, elle a acheté .
— Et toi, tu as tes skis ? — Oui, j'ai déjà .
— N'oublie pas tes bottes ! — Mais non, j'ai … euh, !
— Et la combinaison ? — J'ai aussi, c'est plus chaud.

4.2 · Oh come on! Mais non ! — opposite comparatives

Reply with a comparative of opposite meaning.

Example: — Ma cuisine est plus grande que la tienne. — Mais non, elle est moins grande que la mienne !

— Il y a plus d'habitants dans ma ville que dans la tienne. — Mais non, il y a d'habitants dans la tienne !
— Notre quartier est aussi bruyant que le leur. — Mais non, il est bruyant que le leur !
— Son appartement a autant de pièces que le mien. — Mais non, il a de pièces que le mien !
— Leur logement est moins grand que le nôtre. — Mais non, il est grand que le nôtre !
— Votre maison est plus lumineuse que la sienne. — Mais non, elle est lumineuse que la sienne !

4.3 · What has changed? Then vs now

Fill in with plus de / moins de / autant de.

30 years ago, there were cars than today.
Before, there were small shops and supermarkets than now.
Today there are apartment blocks and single-family houses.
Nowadays there is pollution than before.

5

Communicate

Real-world tasks

🎭 Your turn! Role-play · Vélib' at City Hall

With your partner, pick one of the two roles. Prepare your questions / answers, then act out the scene.

🅰️ The customer

You'd like to rent a Vélib' and want to know more. Ask 5 questions:

Où peut-on trouver les vélos ? ("Where can I find the bikes?")
À quel moment de la journée ? ("What time of day?")
Combien de temps peut-on les louer ? ("How long can I rent for?")
Combien coûte l'abonnement ? ("How much is the subscription?")
Où peut-on payer ? ("Where do I pay?")

🅱️ The City Hall employee

You work at the Mairie de Paris. Inform the customer:

Vélib' stations every 300 m
24/7 availability
Higher rates after 2 hours
Benefits: practical, cheap, less pollution, more freedom

6

Pronunciation · Transport

Open vs closed o

6.1 · The sound [ɔ] (as in port, pomme)

Listen and count how many times you hear the sound [ɔ] (open, oral) in each line of the poem.

« C'est un tout p'tit bonhomme pas plus haut que trois pommes. » times
« Qui grimpe sur son vélo des trésors plein les poches. » times
« Et plein son sac à dos. » times
« Il dépasse une auto qui s'étonne et klaxonne. » times
« (C'est peut-être la vôtre…) » times
« Puis il arrive au port où l'attend un bateau. » times
« Qui l'emporte bientôt vers les eaux de Rio. » times

6.2 · Closed [o] vs open [ɔ] · Find the rule

Sort the words from the poem by their pronunciation and watch the spelling.

[o] closed (ends with a vowel sound)	[ɔ] open (ends with a pronounced consonant)
haut · vélo · sac à dos · auto · la vôtre* · bateau · bientôt · eaux · Rio	transport · bonhomme · pommes · trésors · poches · s'étonne · klaxonne · port · l'emporte

📌 Pronunciation rule

▶︎ Words pronounced [o] (closed, like English "go" without the diphthong) almost always end with a vowel sound (or ô with circumflex).
▶︎ Words pronounced [ɔ] (open, like English "law" — but shorter) end with a pronounced consonant.

English uses one "o" sound that's actually a diphthong [oʊ]. French distinguishes a pure closed [o] and an open [ɔ]. Don't say "véeyo" — keep the "o" pure and short.
*vôtre is the exception: it's spelled with ô to distinguish it from the adjective votre.