Level A1 · Lesson 1
A big ship
Un grand bateau
An elegant Parisian boards the Provence, a fast liner bound for New York. The sky is blue. For now.
The story
Je m’appelle Bernard d’Andrézy. Je suis français, de Paris.
My name is Bernard d’Andrézy. I am French, from Paris.
Je suis sur un bateau. Le bateau s’appelle la Provence.
I am on a ship. The ship is called the Provence.
La Provence est un grand bateau. Elle est rapide et confortable.
The Provence is a big ship. She is fast and comfortable.
Le voyage est long : la Provence va du Havre à New York.
The voyage is long: the Provence goes from Le Havre to New York.
Le commandant est un homme aimable. Il est grand et très calme.
The captain is a kind man. He is tall and very calm.
Les passagers sont élégants. Une dame est anglaise, un monsieur est italien.
The passengers are elegant. One lady is English, one gentleman is Italian.
Le ciel est bleu et la mer est calme. La vie est belle !
The sky is blue and the sea is calm. Life is beautiful!
C’est un voyage parfait. Pour le moment…
It is a perfect voyage. For now…
Vocabulary
- le bateau: the ship, the boat
- le voyage: the voyage, the journey
- le commandant: the captain
- le passager / la passagère: the passenger
- la mer: the sea
- le ciel: the sky
- un homme: a man
- une dame: a lady
- un monsieur: a gentleman
- la vie: life
- le moment: the moment
- grand / grande: big, tall
- long / longue: long
- rapide: fast
- confortable: comfortable
- calme: calm
- aimable: kind
- élégant / élégante: elegant
- bleu / bleue: blue
- parfait / parfaite: perfect
- français / française: French
- anglais / anglaise: English
- italien / italienne: Italian
- américain / américaine: American
Être (to be). Un, une, le, la
All three sentences use the same verb, être, “to be”. It is the most common verb in French and it is irregular, so you learn all six forms now and stop worrying about it.
| être | ||
|---|---|---|
| je | suis | I am |
| tu | es | you are (one friend) |
| il / elle / on | est | he / she / it is, one is |
| nous | sommes | we are |
| vous | êtes | you are (polite, or several people) |
| ils / elles | sont | they are |
Good news for your ears: est and es sound exactly the same, like “ay”. The final -s and -t are silent.
Gender. Every French noun is masculine or feminine: not only people, but ships, seas and skies. There is nothing masculine about a boat. Gender is a label glued to the word, so learn every noun with its article attached: not bateau but le bateau.
| a / an | the | |
|---|---|---|
| masculine | un bateau | le bateau |
| feminine | une dame | la mer |
Before a vowel or a silent h, le and la both shrink to l’: l’homme, l’Amérique. Easier to say, and it hides the gender, so the dictionary is your friend there.
Ships are a fun exception to watch for: French usually says la Provence, la France, because the ship takes the gender of its name, but the word bateau itself stays masculine. And an adjective that describes a feminine noun often takes an extra -e: un grand bateau, une grande ville. Lesson 2 is about exactly that.
Leblanc in the original
«La Provence est un transatlantique rapide, confortable, commandé par le plus affable des hommes.»The Provence is a fast, comfortable liner, commanded by the most affable of men.