Where is it in French? Sur, sous and dans

Level A1

Where is it in French? Sur, sous and dans

You can use a room in the Explorer to practise finding familiar objects. Ask Où est… ? (Where is…?), then answer with il or elle, est and a location. The pronoun follows the French gender of the object you are locating.

Three objects and a room

Le livre is the book, la table the table and la chaise the chair; the new room word is la cuisine, the kitchen. Livre is masculine; table, chaise and cuisine are feminine, so keep le or la with each name.

To identify something you can say C'est un livre (It's a book), C'est une table (It's a table) or C'est une chaise (It's a chair). Now you will say where it is: est means is, as in il est or elle est. Listen to the four word cards and find a book, a table and a chair around you, or picture them.

Find the book, the chair and the table

Imagine a kitchen: a book rests on the tabletop and a chair is tucked under the table. One person asks where each object is and the other answers. Où means where; sur means on, sous under and dans in. Listen to the exchange: il refers to the book, and elle refers first to the chair, then to the table.

Où est + the object

Use Où est followed by the object's name with le or la: Où est le livre ? means Where is the book? Keep the accent on où. In these questions, est comes before the named object; practise this short pattern as a unit.

Change only the object: le livre, la table, la chaise. All three name one thing, so est stays the same. Listen and ask each question.

Où est le livre / la table / la chaise ?

The object's gender chooses il or elle

Sur la table means on the table, touching its top; sous la table means under the table; dans la cuisine means in the kitchen. Sur and sous sound different: compare their audio and keep the two locations separate. Choose a combination that fits the scene: a book can be sur la table, and a table can be dans la cuisine.

Le livre is masculine, so Le livre est sur la table becomes Il est sur la table. La chaise and la table are feminine: for the chair, Elle est sous la table; for the table, Elle est dans la cuisine. Both il and elle mean it here: unlike English, French gives these object nouns a gender.

Look back to the object you are locating, not to the place after the verb: il in Il est sur la table refers to le livre despite the feminine la table. Keep il or elle in these full answers, followed by est; you can also repeat the object's name. The substitutions in the pattern are choices, not a claim that every object fits every position.

Il / Elle est sur / sous / dans la table / la cuisine.

Recognize à côté de

In a different arrangement, the chair may be beside the table: La chaise est à côté de la table. À côté de means next to, and the three words work together as one expression of place. Listen and understand this example; you do not need to produce the longer expression yet.

Your turn: ask, locate, check

Imagine a new arrangement: the book is on the floor under the table, and the table is in the kitchen. First ask where the book is; then answer using its full name, Le livre. Next, say where the table is without repeating table, and say that the chair is under the table without repeating chaise. Try before reading, then check the four examples in that order and listen.

The pattern to keep is Où est + object ?, then il for le livre or elle for la table and la chaise, followed by est and a sensible location with sur, sous or dans. You already have a basis for exploring: choose an object you recognize in the Explorer and try a supported question and answer about its actual position.

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