4. C’est ma famille. (It’s my family.)

4.0. Module 4 Summary

In Module 4, you learned how to talk about people, family, hobbies, movement, places, and time in a more connected way. You began by learning how to meet people and ask what they do for a living with expressions such as Tu fais quoi dans la vie ? and Qu’est-ce que tu fais dans la vie ? You also learned how to answer with je suis + profession, using words such as étudiant, professeur, médecin, comptable, and artiste.

You then learned how to talk about free-time activities using aimer + infinitive. You practiced questions such as Qu’est-ce que tu aimes faire ? and answers such as J’aime écouter de la musique, J’aime regarder des films, J’aime faire du sport, and J’aime lire.

You expanded your vocabulary for family members, pets, extended family, and relationship status. You learned words such as mon père, ma mère, mes parents, un chien, un chat, un frère aîné, une sœur cadette, marié(e), divorcé(e), and célibataire. You also practiced possessive articles such as mon, ma, mes, ton, ta, tes, son, sa, ses, notre, votre, and leur.

You also learned numbers from 70 and up, including soixante-dix, quatre-vingts, quatre-vingt-dix, cent, and mille.

In the second half of the module, you studied movement and location. You learned the verbs aller, venir, and revenir, and practiced expressions such as Je vais au café, Je viens de Calgary, and Je reviens du cours. You also learned how to use articles and prepositions with geographical locations: à with cities, en with many feminine countries, au with masculine countries, aux with plural countries, and de, du, or des to say where someone comes from.

Finally, you learned the beginner use of y and en to replace place phrases, and you practiced two very useful time structures: venir de + infinitive for the recent past and aller + infinitive for the near future.

By the end of Module 4, you should be able to ask what someone does for a living, talk about hobbies and free time, describe family members and pets, use possessive articles, say numbers above 70, talk about going to and coming from places, use basic geographical prepositions, and situate events in the recent past and near future.

Module 5 will build on these skills by helping you get someone’s attention, ask and tell time, talk about when events occur, use more present-tense verbs, discuss weather and outdoor activities, ask more detailed information questions, and describe people, places, and things with greater precision.