Passing on useful information in French
Two guests need information from a hotel message. You will select what helps them, name the source, and keep the conditions and times while changing the wording. A useful summary is shorter than the source without changing what the guests need to do.
Recover the words you need
L'accueil is reception, l'hôtel the hotel, le message the message, and le petit-déjeuner breakfast. Fermer means close, arriver arrive, appeler call by phone, and servir serve food. Listen to the cards. Téléphoner is another way of saying call by phone; you will hear it in the notice. Recall si + present for an open condition, followed here by an instruction, and est servi for is served.
Listen to the hotel message
The hotel sends these three sentences to two guests: reception closes at 20:00; if they arrive after 20:00, they should phone Ana; breakfast is served from 07:00 to 09:00. Listen and identify those three pieces of information. Après means after, and de… à… gives the two ends of a time range. These source lines are for recognition: you do not need to reproduce them word for word.
L'accueil ferme à vingt heures.
- formal
Si vous arrivez après vingt heures, téléphonez à Ana.
Le petit-déjeuner est servi de sept heures à neuf heures du matin.
Choose for the recipient and name the source
For guests arriving late, select the closing time and the instruction to call. For someone asking about breakfast, select its hours. D'après le message de l'hôtel means according to the hotel's message; selon le message means according to the message. Neither expression says you personally checked the facts. After naming the source, keep the information relevant to the question. You may omit breakfast from an answer about arrival, but not the condition that determines whether to call.
D'après / Selon la source, l'information utile
D'après le message de l'hôtel, l'accueil ferme à vingt heures.
According to the hotel's message, reception closes at eight p.m.
- formal
Si vous arrivez après vingt heures, appelez Ana.
Selon le message, le petit-déjeuner est servi de sept heures à neuf heures du matin.
According to the message, breakfast is served from seven to nine a.m.
Change the words, keep the instruction
In this telephone context, téléphonez à Ana and appelez Ana give the same instruction: phone Ana. Notice the construction: téléphoner à quelqu'un, but appeler quelqu'un, without à. Est servi and on sert describe the same breakfast service here; on leaves the people serving unnamed, with a singular verb. This is a recovery of the passive and its active alternative, not a new conjugation chart. Keep après vingt heures: after 20:00 does not mean from 20:00 onward. Keep both breakfast limits, seven and nine; merely saying le matin loses information.
- formal
Si vous arrivez après vingt heures, téléphonez à Ana.
- formal
Si vous arrivez après vingt heures, appelez Ana.
Le petit-déjeuner est servi de sept heures à neuf heures du matin.
Le matin, on sert le petit-déjeuner de sept heures à neuf heures.
Answer the guests, one need at a time
Speaker a represents the two guests: Nous arrivons à vingt et une heures means we arrive at 21:00. Speaker b passes on the hotel's instruction, so alors means in that case. The guests then ask about breakfast with Et pour le petit-déjeuner à l'hôtel ? Here vous and appelez address both guests. No one promises that entering without calling is possible, or that breakfast is free: the message does not say either.
- A
Nous arrivons à vingt et une heures.
- Bformal
Alors, appelez Ana.
- A
Et pour le petit-déjeuner à l'hôtel ?
- B
Selon le message, le petit-déjeuner est servi de sept heures à neuf heures du matin.
According to the message, breakfast is served from seven to nine a.m.
Your turn: pass on the useful points
Use the same hotel message. You are answering two guests arriving at 21:00. Before reading the answers, say when reception closes and name the hotel message as the source. Then give the conditional instruction to call Ana, naming the message again. Finally, the guests ask about breakfast: describe its service with on sert and keep both hours. Check the three model answers and listen. Could the guests act correctly from your summary? Check the source, 20:00, the condition after that time, Ana, and 07:00–09:00. Their own arrival time is 21:00; do not change the hotel's threshold to 21:00.
D'après le message de l'hôtel, l'accueil ferme à vingt heures.
According to the hotel's message, reception closes at eight p.m.
- formal
Selon le message, si vous arrivez après vingt heures, appelez Ana.
According to the message, if you arrive after eight p.m., call Ana.
Le matin, on sert le petit-déjeuner de sept heures à neuf heures.
A short summary that stays faithful
The table is a silent checklist, not an audio exercise. Name the source, preserve the condition and the next action, and keep the exact relevant times. A paraphrase can use familiar verbs instead of copying the source or translating every word. Do not turn reception's closing time into a claim about when the whole hotel closes, and do not add permission or prices the source never gives.