Visiter Les Lieux Publics – JSS1 French Lesson Note (Second Term)

Les lieux publics are public places that people visit in their community, such as the school, church, market, bank and airport.

Behavioural objectives

1. Name the main public places in French with the correct article (le, la, l’, les).
2. Ask the question Qu’est-ce qu’on fait à…? correctly.
3. Say in French what people do at the school, church, hospital, station, market, library, airport and bank.
4. Use à la, à l’, au and aux correctly with place names.
5. Spell the names of these places with the correct accents.

Quels sont les lieux publics? (What are the public places?)

Les lieux publics are the places in a town or village that everybody can visit, and there are twelve to learn here.

• Le or la: le goes before a masculine noun and la before a feminine noun.
• L’: le and la become l’ before a vowel or a silent h, as in l’école and l’hôpital.
• Les: les is used before any plural noun.

How do we ask what people do in a place?

We ask Qu’est-ce qu’on fait à…?, which means “What do people do at…?”.

1. Start with Qu’est-ce qu’on fait.
2. Add à (at) and the place, for example à l’église.
3. Answer with On + verb + à + place, for example On prie à l’église.

• On: means “people” or “we” and takes the same verb form as il or elle.
• Question mark: every question ends with a question mark.

When do we use à la, à l’, au and aux?

The word à (at, to) changes its form according to the noun that follows it.

Which verbs do we use to talk about public places?

We use short everyday verbs, and each one takes the form shown after on.

Qu’est-ce qu’on fait dans les lieux publics? (What do people do in public places?)

People do different things in each public place, and each answer begins with On.

• On y lit: y replaces “à la bibliothèque” and means “there”, so the sentence means “People read there.”
• Prendre: it is used for taking a vehicle, medicine, money or a lesson.
• Acheter: it is used for buying goods at the market.

How do we spell the names of public places correctly?

French spelling needs the correct accent on each letter, because a missing accent is a spelling mistake.

• Accent aigu (é): école, église, mosquée, marché, aéroport, bibliothèque.
• Accent grave (è): bibliothèque has both é and è.
• Accent circonflexe (ô): hôpital.
• Silent h: hôpital begins with h, but we still write l’hôpital.
• Double letters: none of these words has a double consonant except none to memorise, so copy each letter carefully.

Evaluation

1. Name five lieux publics in French.
2. Qu’est-ce qu’on fait à l’église?
3. Qu’est-ce qu’on fait à la bibliothèque?
4. Qu’est-ce qu’on fait à l’aéroport?
5. Qu’est-ce qu’on fait à la banque?

Assignment

Devoir: Écrivez la question et la réponse pour chaque lieu: Qu’est-ce qu’on fait…? On…

1. Le poste de police
2. La mosquée
3. Les centres touristiques