Most of the French you will read outside class is not a story or a practice dialogue: it is a real text with a job to do. A poster invites you to a party, an ad tries to sell you a summer camp, an email confirms a booking, a train schedule tells you when to be on the platform. In Canada you see these texts every day — on bilingual bus schedules in Ottawa, on cereal boxes, on VIA Rail tickets. The good news is that you do not need to understand every word. Each text form has features that tell you where the important information is: an invitation always answers who, what, where, when; an ad puts the price and the deadline in big type; a schedule lines times up in columns. If you recognise the form first, you know what to look for, and you can find it even in a text full of words you have never seen.
Know the text form, then find the information
| Text form | Purpose | Features to look for |
|---|---|---|
| la brochure / le dépliant (brochure, leaflet) | to inform and attract visitors | a title, headings, photos, short lists, a map, opening hours and contact information |
| la publicité / l'annonce (ad) | to sell or persuade | a slogan, commands such as Viens ! or Profitez !, prices, un rabais (a discount), les soldes (a sale), a deadline |
| l'invitation | to invite | Qui ? Quoi ? Où ? Quand ? and R.S.V.P. (Répondez s'il vous plaît: please reply) |
| le courriel (email) | to communicate quickly | Objet (the subject line), a greeting, short paragraphs, a closing |
| la lettre formelle (formal letter) | to make an official request or complaint | the place and date, Madame, Monsieur,, vous throughout, a formal closing formula |
| le blogue (le blog in France) | to share experiences and opinions | a date on each post, je, a friendly tone, photos and readers' comments |
| l'horaire (schedule, timetable) | to give times and places | columns with headings, the 24-hour clock, abbreviations |
- Objet : Samedi ?
- Greeting: Salut Chloé, or Coucou !
- Tu, short sentences, a friendly tone
- Closing: À bientôt ! or À plus ! and your first name
- Objet : Demande d'information – camp d'été
- Greeting: Bonjour Madame, or Madame, Monsieur,
- Vous, full sentences, polite forms such as je voudrais and pourriez-vous
- Closing: Cordialement, or Je vous remercie à l'avance. A formal letter ends with Veuillez agréer, Madame, Monsieur, l'expression de mes salutations distinguées.
Translation: Are you between 13 and 16? Do you like canoeing, hiking and campfires? Come and spend a week by the lake! Dates: July 6 to 12 or July 20 to 26. Price: 350 dollars a week, meals included. Sign up before June 1 and save 10%! Information: 705 555-0142 or campleinair@exemple.ca. Spot the ad features: the questions that speak directly to you (tu, because the ad targets teens), the commands Viens, Inscris-toi and Économise, the price and the deadline. Notice the French date order — day first, then the month, with no capital: le 6 juillet, and le 1er juin (premier) for the first of the month. On a real French-Canadian ad, the price would be printed as the number, a space, and then the dollar sign — the sign goes after the number, the opposite of English. In this course we write the word dollars instead of the sign. French also puts a space before the percent sign: 10 %, read dix pour cent.
Reading a schedule on the 24-hour clock
French-language schedules in Canada and Europe use the 24-hour clock, written with h between the hours and the minutes: 13 h 40 is read treize heures quarante. For any hour after 12, subtract 12 to get the afternoon or evening time: 13 h 40 is 1:40 p.m., 21 h 05 is 9:05 p.m. To find the durée (how long the trip lasts), subtract the departure time from the arrival time — but remember an hour has 60 minutes, not 100, so do not subtract like decimals. The safest method is to count up: take the Montréal–Québec train, which leaves at 17 h 45 and arrives at 21 h 05. From 17 h 45 to 18 h 00 is 15 minutes; from 18 h 00 to 21 h 00 is 3 hours; from 21 h 00 to 21 h 05 is 5 more minutes. Total: 3 hours and 20 minutes, or 3 h 20 — exactly what the Durée column says.
| French | English | Example |
|---|---|---|
| la gare · l'horaire (m.) | train station · schedule | L'horaire est affiché à la gare. |
| le départ · partir | departure · to leave | Le train part à 13 h 40. |
| l'arrivée (f.) · arriver | arrival · to arrive | Il arrive à Montréal à 15 h 35. |
| la durée · durer | length of time · to last | Le voyage dure 1 h 55. |
| le quai | platform | Le train part du quai 2. |
| un aller simple · un aller-retour | a one-way ticket · a round-trip ticket | Un aller-retour pour Kingston, s'il vous plaît. |
| la correspondance | connection (changing trains or buses) | J'ai une correspondance à Ottawa. |
| à l'heure · en retard · annulé | on time · late · cancelled | Le train de 9 h 30 est en retard. |
| tous les jours · en semaine · sauf le dimanche | every day · on weekdays · except Sundays | Ce bus passe tous les jours sauf le dimanche. |
Numbers and prices
| Written in French | Read aloud | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 45,50 (sign after) | quarante-cinq dollars cinquante | a comma separates the cents, and the dollar sign comes after the number |
| 89,50 | quatre-vingt-neuf dollars cinquante | 89 = four twenties + 9 |
| 112,75 | cent douze dollars soixante-quinze | cent alone means 100 — no un in front |
| 200 | deux cents | cents takes an -s when it is multiplied and nothing follows |
| 250 | deux cent cinquante | no -s on cent when another number follows |
| 2 000 | deux mille | mille never takes an -s, and there is no un before it |
| 1 250 | mille deux cent cinquante | a space (not a comma) separates the thousands |
| 10 % | dix pour cent | a space before the percent sign |
- Objet : Notre voyage à Québec
- Salut Chloé,
- J'ai trouvé l'horaire des trains ! Vendredi, nous prenons le train de 15 h 10 à Toronto, quai 4. Nous arrivons à Montréal à 20 h 25, donc le voyage dure cinq heures quinze. Nous dormons chez ma tante. Samedi, le train pour Québec part à 17 h 45 et arrive à 21 h 05.
- Pour chaque personne, les billets coûtent 112,75 dollars et 63,25 dollars, donc 176 dollars au total. Avec notre budget de 200 dollars, il nous reste 24 dollars chacun pour une poutine et un souvenir !
- Qu'est-ce que tu en penses ? Réponds-moi avant jeudi, s'il te plaît.
- À bientôt,
- Samir
Translation: Subject: Our trip to Québec City. Hi Chloé, I found the train schedule! On Friday we take the 3:10 p.m. train in Toronto, platform 4. We arrive in Montréal at 8:25 p.m., so the trip lasts five hours fifteen minutes. We sleep at my aunt's. On Saturday the train to Québec City leaves at 5:45 p.m. and arrives at 9:05 p.m. For each person the tickets cost 112.75 dollars and 63.25 dollars, so 176 dollars in total. With our budget of 200 dollars, we each have 24 dollars left for a poutine and a souvenir! What do you think? Answer me before Thursday, please. See you soon, Samir. Check Samir's arithmetic against the schedule: 20 h 25 − 15 h 10 = 5 h 15, and 112,75 + 63,25 = 176,00. Notice the email features too: the Objet line, the friendly Salut and À bientôt, and tu because Chloé is a friend.