LearnModule 6 · Lesson 18 of 30Independent User · CEFR B1, first halfUnit 4 · Sentences that breathe

où — the place where, the day when

Module 6 of the free French course (CEFR B1, first half), lesson 18 of 30: Où glues a place to its sentence: la ville où j'habite (the town where I live). On this page: 8 words with their genders and respellings, the rule, a watch-out line and the audio — the study notes behind the workbook's lesson 18.

The words

French	English	Say it
où	where, when (relative)	oo
la ville où j'habite	the town where I live	lah veel oo zhah-BEET
le jour où	the day when	luh zhoor OO
le quartier	the neighborhood	luh kahr-TYAY
le pays	the country	luh pay-EE
l'endroitmasculine — the article elides to l'	the place	lah(n)-DRWAH
je suis né	I was born (m)	zhuh swee NAY
je suis née	I was born (f)	zhuh swee NAY

Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.

Hear the words

Each word is read twice — say it back in the gap. Computer-generated voice; credits on the course page.

La règle · The rule

Où glues a place to its sentence: la ville où j'habite (the town where I live), le quartier où je suis né. French also uses it for TIME: le jour où (the day when).

Et aussi · And also

C'est le pays où je veux voyager. C'est le jour où tout a changé. Where English switches between where and when, French keeps one word.

Attention · Watch out

où covers place AND time: le jour où (the day when). Never le jour quand — quand is not a relative pronoun in French.

Do it now — on paper

Say all 8 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the French spelling alone — begin with où.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the French.
Write two sentences of your own that get the watch-out line right, then the two practice pages of workbook lesson 18 in Module 6 are the written half of this page.

This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The French Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.

Keep these words

Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.

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