12. Turn right.

Module 12 Summary

In Module 12, you learned how to ask for and give directions, talk about city living, compare different kinds of words, give commands, and use object pronouns in the passé composé.

You began by learning practical direction phrases such as Où est la gare ?, Comment aller au café ?, Je cherche la bibliothèque, and Pour aller au musée, s’il vous plaît ? You practiced giving directions with commands like Allez tout droit, Tournez à droite, Tournez à gauche, Continuez tout droit, and Prenez la première rue à droite.

You then learned how to talk about city living with words such as la ville, le centre-ville, un quartier, une rue, un parc, un immeuble, un supermarché, and les transports en commun. You practiced describing city life with expressions like J’habite en ville, J’habite au centre-ville, C’est pratique, C’est bruyant, Il y a beaucoup de circulation, and La campagne est plus calme que la ville.

In the grammar sections, you connected connaître and reconnaître with the earlier verbs savoir and croire. You learned that connaître is used for people, places, and things you are familiar with, savoir is used for facts or skills, croire is used for beliefs or opinions, and reconnaître means to recognize. You practiced sentences such as Je connais cette ville, Je sais où est la gare, Je crois que c’est près, and Je reconnais cette rue.

You also expanded your comparison skills. Earlier, you used comparatives and superlatives with adjectives, such as plus grand que and le plus grand. In this module, you learned how to compare adverbs and nouns with structures such as plus vite que, moins lentement que, aussi bien que, plus de restaurants que, moins de circulation, and autant de temps que. You also practiced the irregular adverb mieux, as in Je comprends mieux maintenant.

You then studied the imperative, the command form. You learned how to give direct instructions with Va, Allez, Tourne, Tournez, Prends, Prenez, Parle, and Parlez. You connected commands with impersonal expressions and modal verbs: Il faut tourner à droite, Tu dois prendre le bus, and Vous pouvez attendre ici. You also practiced negative commands such as Ne parle pas trop vite and Ne tournez pas à gauche.

Finally, you learned how to use object pronouns in the passé composé. You practiced placing pronouns before the auxiliary verb in sentences like Je l’ai vu, Je les ai achetés, Je lui ai parlé, Je leur ai écrit, J’y suis allé, and J’en ai acheté. You also learned that direct object pronouns can trigger agreement, as in Je l’ai vue and Je les ai achetées, while indirect object pronouns such as lui and leur do not.

By the end of Module 12, you should be able to ask for directions, give clear instructions, describe city life, compare adjectives, adverbs, and nouns, use connaître, reconnaître, savoir, and croire accurately, form commands, and place object pronouns correctly in the passé composé.

Module 13 will build on these skills by helping you talk about hypothetical situations, vacations and travel, movement with verbs such as conduire, the conditional mood, and commands with object pronouns.