Contact details and short messages in French

Level A1

Contact details and short messages in French

You are making a contact card and inviting a friend out. Keep the letter chart and models open: the aim is to pass on the right information, not to memorize an alphabet. You can already explore the Explorer; writing practice is optional and does not unlock it.

The words on a contact card

Nom means name, adresse means address, téléphone means phone, numéro means number, rue means street, and épeler means to spell out. Listen to the cards. Adresse is feminine: une adresse. In a form, the label Téléphone asks for a number, not for the device. Numéro de téléphone is phone number. In a real form, Nom often means family name and Prénom means given name; our simplified practice card uses Nom for Lina.

Recover a name and an invitation

Je m’appelle Lina means “My name is Lina”: replace Lina with a name. Salut ! is “Hi!” to a friend. On va au parc samedi ? means “Shall we go to the park on Saturday?” Here on va proposes something together, au parc is to the park, and samedi is Saturday. This is one particular Saturday; le samedi usually means on Saturdays. You do not need the full verb tables to reuse these models.

A letter chart to consult

The square brackets give the French letter names in sound symbols. This is a reference chart, not an audio player or a memorization task. Use the spoken L, I, N, A model below first: I is [i], like the vowel in “see”, not English “eye”. The name Lina is spoken as a word; spelling it means saying four separate letter names. French G [ʒe] and J [ʒi] differ; U [y] uses rounded lips with the tongue positioned for [i]. You can come back to the other symbols as needed.

LetterFrench letter name
A[a]
B[be]
C[se]
D[de]
E[ə]
F[ɛf]
G[ʒe]
H[aʃ]
I[i]
J[ʒi]
K[ka]
L[ɛl]
M[ɛm]
N[ɛn]
O[o]
P[pe]
Q[ky]
R[ɛʁ]
S[ɛs]
T[te]
U[y]
V[ve]
W[dubləve]
X[iks]
Y[iɡʁɛk]
Z[zɛd]

Ask, then say the letters separately

Tu peux épeler ? asks a friend “Can you spell it?” Vous pouvez épeler ? is the polite version for one person you address as vous. Peux/pouvez changes with the person; épeler stays in the infinitive after it. Listen to the questions, then to L, I, N, A. You may point to the chart and pause between letters. The letters are pronounced in French even though the translation’s audio uses your reading language.

Tu peux / Vous pouvez épeler ?

Listen for the address and the number

Two friends exchange contact details. Ton adresse ? is “Your address?”; ton is used here before the vowel even though adresse is feminine. Douze is twelve. Rue des Lilas is the street name, roughly “Lilac Street”; keep the French name when copying the address. Ton numéro de téléphone ? asks “Your phone number?”

The number 00 11 22 33 44 is deliberately invented for this exercise, not a usable French phone number. The spoken groups are zéro zéro = 00, onze = 11, vingt-deux = 22, trente-trois = 33, quarante-quatre = 44. French numbers are often read in pairs. You can also say every digit separately, as in the last section.

Copy the details without changing them

Before checking the right column, cover it and fill in a practice contact card using the earlier name model and the dialogue: Nom (name), Adresse (address), Téléphone (phone number). Keep the letter order in Lina, the house number before the street, and both initial zeros. This is a simplified street address, not a complete postal address: real forms may also ask for a postcode and town. The table has no audio; use the dialogue to hear the details.

FieldFictional details
NomLina
Adresse12, rue des Lilas
Téléphone00 11 22 33 44

Write a greeting, invitation and time

Read the first three lines as one message to a friend: “Hi! Shall we go to the park on Saturday? At 3 p.m.” À quinze heures gives the time: quinze = 15 and heures = hours on the clock, so 15 h is 3 p.m. Use à before the time; hours above one normally take heures. Here the question is followed by its proposed time. Copying these short complete forms is enough.

The final line is recognition only: bjr abbreviates bonjour (hello), and rdv abbreviates rendez-vous (meeting/appointment). Here rdv samedi ? suggests meeting on Saturday. These are written shortcuts, not new words to pronounce as written. For your own message, use the full forms already shown; you need not learn texting abbreviations.

Pass it on, then try a small change

On paper, make Lina’s practice card from memory or with the models open. Read its telephone number to another person digit by digit, or say it aloud yourself: zéro, zéro, un, un, deux, deux, trois, trois, quatre, quatre. Then have the listener read it back; compare the ten digits. Listen below to check.

Spell Lina, then change only L to N to spell Nina, using N from the chart. Finally write the three-line invitation above, and check that it contains the park, Saturday and 15 h. You may copy first and try without the model later. The key is accuracy of letters, numbers and meeting details; needing the chart does not stop you exploring.

Practise this lesson