Popular French Phrases - Paying

If you are a tourist in another country, most of the time you will have to exchange your money for the money of the country in order to buy things.

Robert n'a pas d'argent francais et pour faires ses achats et il en aura besoin. C'est pourquoi (why) il entre dans un bureau de change (exchange office).

Robert has no French money and to make purchases he will need some. That is why he enters an exchange office.

Putting it together:

Let's dissect this sentence so we can practice putting together some of the concepts we have learned and become really good at forming sentences in French.

That is a basic sentence that you just formed in French. In order for this to work really well, you have to add a bit of French rules to it. Remember that we say we have "of the" something, not just that we have something, as in English.

Robert     a     de l' argent.

Et=and

pour faires ses achats. "Pour" can mean "for", but also "in order to". "Faire ses achats" works the same as in English-"To make his purchases". That was easy. But now we have a concept that we have to change from the way we say it in English to the way we say it in French. "Il en aura besoin." He will need some. Let's see how this works.

1. In French, we say "I have need" of something, rather than "I need" something.
2. Looking back at Lesson 2, you will see that "aura" is the third person singular (in other words, he) of avoir, to have.
3. "En" means some, of it or some of it. In the present tense, this would work like this: J'en ai besoin. (I need some.)

The second sentence should be easy for you. He goes (enters into) an exchange office.

Let's continue to get some French money and go spend it.

Robert: "Monsieur, voulez-vous changer de dollars americains?" Sir, will you exchange some American dollars?
Changeur: Certainement. Combien monsieur veut-il changer? Certainly. How much would sir like to exchange?
Robert: Je changerai cent dollars. I will exchange one hundred dollars.
Changeur: Voice, monsieur, quartre-vingt Euros.

Uh-oh! We need to know more numbers! Let's continue on from thirty. In Lesson , we saw that that numbers changed from one to nineteen. But from twenty on, everything stays pretty much the same. You only have to learn 20, 30, 40, etc. and then add one, two, three, etc. Go back and practice the numbers in Lesson Seven for a bit, and then we can add these new numbers:

40-quarante (car ahnt)
41-quarante et une
42-quarante deux
43-quarante trios
etc.

50-cinquante (sank ahnt)
51-cinquante et une
54-cinquante quartre
etc

60-soixiante (soi sahnt)
61-soixante et une
65-soixante cinq
66-soixante six
etc.

After that things get a little tricky. For seventy, you say soixante-dix (sixty-ten). Because of this change in construction, you will not use un, deux, trios, etc. after seventy. You need to change it to onze, deuze, treize, etc., because the ten is already accounted for. The same rule applies to 70, 80 and 90:

70-soixante-dix (soi sahnt deece)
71-soixante onze
80-quatre vingt
82-quatre vingt et une
83-quatre vingt trois
90-quatre vingt dix
91-quatre vingt onze
94-quatre vingt quatorze.

Finally, there is cent (100) or 200 (deux cent) or 300(trios cent). After 100, you start all over again:

101- cent et une,105-cent cinq, 220- deux cent vingt, 335- trois cent trente cinq. Now try forming all of your own numbers!

What Did We Learn?

1. Practice simple sentences: I have money. He has five Euros. She is exchanging 100 dollars.
2. I would like to make some purchases: J'aimerais _____________________.
3. I need to change some money.__________________________________.

And now, practice your numbers:

4. 25 dollars
5. 100 Euros
6. There are forty children in the class (classe).
7. I have 1,382 books.
8. She has 3 sisters, 12 cousins and 17 nieces and nephews (nieces et neveux).
9. That costs (Ca coute) Euro94.
10. How much is that? (C'est combien?) That's 100 Euros. Ca coute 100 Euros.