Find your way
A free French directions vocabulary quiz, scored on the page. Tout droit, à gauche, le quai, la correspondance: prove you could actually follow the answer when you ask where the station is.
The train will not wait for your vocabulary
Fourteen questions on directions and station French: tout droit, en face de, aller-retour, composter, and the voie/quai pair. Pass these and you can get from the wrong side of town to seat 42 without pointing at your phone.
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French directions vocabulary that survives the street
The quiz tests directions and transport vocabulary: tout droit versus tout à droite (straight ahead versus all the way right, a costly mix-up), traverser, le carrefour, la correspondance in the metro, le quai at the station. Learners fail here because asking the question is the easy half. « Où est la gare ? » takes five seconds to learn; understanding « vous continuez tout droit puis vous prenez la deuxième à gauche » at native speed is what this vocabulary is actually for.
Score yourself, then go through the answer key: each explanation situates the word in the phrase you will really hear. Retake the quiz until the left-right-straight reflexes are automatic, because on the street you will not have time to translate. The Learning Center has guides on travel French if you want the structured version. The French Briefing, our daily reading digest, keeps place and movement vocabulary in front of you between trips.
What does « tout droit » mean, and how is it different from « à droite »?
Tout droit means straight ahead. À droite means to the right. They sound dangerously close to English ears, and mixing them up sends you the wrong way. Memory hook: droit without the final e-sound is straight; droite with the pronounced t is right, like « turn right ».
How do I ask for directions politely in French?
Open with « Excusez-moi » then ask: « Où est la gare, s’il vous plaît ? » or « Pour aller à la gare ? ». Both are natural. Prepare for the answer too: continuez (keep going), prenez (take), traversez (cross), au feu (at the traffic light), au carrefour (at the crossroads).
What is « une correspondance » in the Paris metro?
A transfer between lines. When a sign says correspondance with line numbers, it points to the platforms for changing trains. Related essentials: la sortie (exit), le quai (platform), la rame (the train itself), and un carnet, the discounted book of tickets, now largely replaced by the Navigo Easy card.
