Year 9 - French
Countries and states: 'à' and 'en'
Canada: verbs in the present, negation
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
This unit consolidates -re verbs like entendre, and introduces 'connaître in singular forms. The use of à (meaning to) for masculine countries in introduced, building on existing knowledge of à and en meaning to for cities and feminine countries.The negative 'ne...jamais' is introduced.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to describe where people go and where they are in the context of holidays, using the correct prepositions.
Key Notes
- [ai] is pronounced as in 'vrai'; [é/er/ez] is pronounced as in 'écrire'.
- Without an article, words like 'québecois' are adjectives, with a capital letter, they are nouns meaning a person.
- Use the preposition 'à' to talk about going to/being in a town/city and 'en' with feminine countries.
- Use 'au' ('à' + le) to talk about going to/being in masculine countries (usually country names not ending in -e).
Vocabulary To Learn
- [ai]: pronounced as in 'vrai'
- [é/er/ez]: pronounced as in 'écrire'
- preposition: a word that is used before a noun, a noun phrase, or a pronoun, connecting it to another word
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- The sound-symbol correspondences [ai] and [é/er/ez] sound the same in French.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain what you can now say or understand in this lesson.
[ai] is pronounced as in 'vrai'; [é/er/ez] is pronounced as in 'écrire'. Without an article, words like 'québecois' are adjectives, with a capital letter, they are nouns meaning a person.
2. Define this key language word and use it in context. '[ai]'
pronounced as in 'vrai'. Say or write it in a short sentence so you use the word actively.
3. Correct this common language-learning mistake.
Mistake: The sound-symbol correspondences [ai] and [é/er/ez] sound the same in French. Correction: The letters 'ai/ay' are the same as the SSC [é/er/ez] in French but [ai] is pronounced as in 'vrai' with slightly more relaxed lips than 'ai/ay' in English.
More Lessons In This Unit
Browse all guides in the Year 9 French guide library.