"en" inside a vehicle, "à" astride/on foot
Most transport takes en — the vehicle you travel inside: en train, en bus, en car, en métro, en voiture, en avion, en bateau. A small group takes à — a vehicle you sit astride, or none at all: à vélo, à moto, à pied. Watch le car = coach (long journeys), a false friend for English "car"; the word for car is la voiture. The full table is in the note.
Station nouns and journey movement verbs
At the station (la gare, la station de métro, l'arrêt de bus): un billet, un aller simple (single), un aller-retour (return), le guichet (ticket office), le quai (platform), composter (validate a ticket), le trajet (journey). Movement verbs: aller (je vais, nous allons), prendre (je prends, nous prenons), descendre / attendre (regular -re). durer (to last) — le trajet dure deux heures — is often missed.
Drawn from real examiner reports.
Movement verbs take être in the perfect
Core movement verbs — descendre (get off), partir (leave), arriver (arrive), monter (get on) — take être, not avoir, in the perfect, and the participle agrees with the subject: Je suis descendu(e) du train (not "j'ai descendu"); Elle est partie. Candidates often keep the wrong auxiliary or drop the agreement.
s23 43 Q3(b)
"le car" means coach, not "car"
le car is a false friend: it means coach (a long-distance bus), not "car". The French for car is la voiture — on a pris le car pour Paris (we took the coach to Paris) vs je vais au travail en voiture (I go to work by car). Mixing them up changes the meaning of the journey, so keep le car (coach) and la voiture (car) firmly apart.
general FL trap
Wrong preposition or "à le" not contracted
Two preposition errors recur. (1) Wrong transport preposition: dans en bus (doubled preposition) for plain en bus, or en with vélo/moto/pied instead of à. (2) Missing the contraction: à + le → au, à + les → aux — à le zoo must be au zoo. These depend on the following noun, so proofread them — a gender rule won't catch them.
s22 41 Accuracy
Confusing "où" with quand/comment/combien
Directions depend on recognising où (where) and not confusing it with other question words. Examiners flag candidates mishearing où and answering the wrong category — a time or a transport when a place was asked. Keep phrases fixed: Où est la gare ?, Pour aller à la station de métro ? Contrast quand, comment, combien.
s22 Cards 3, 5, 6
marché (market) vs marcher (to walk)
marché (market, a noun) and marcher (to walk, a verb) are near-homophones with unrelated meanings. Candidates confused them and chose the wrong Reading distractor — answering about travelling on foot when the text was about a market. Check the ending: -é noun (le marché) vs -er infinitive (marcher). One letter changes the meaning.
s23 Reading 22 Q3(e)
"le trajet" and "durer" often not known
Examiners note le trajet (the journey) and durer (to last / take time) are not well known by weaker candidates, yet you need them to say how long a journey takes: le trajet dure deux heures. Note durer is a verb — use le trajet dure..., not le trajet est... with a time span. Learn this pair as core journey vocabulary.
s22 Speaking Topic 2
en is not used with every transport
A common misconception is that en is the universal transport preposition, reusable for everything. French splits into two groups: en + a vehicle you travel inside (en train, en bus, en voiture, en avion), and à + a vehicle you sit astride or no vehicle (à vélo, à moto, à pied). A related slip: le car means coach, not "car".
general FL trap
Fix the transport preposition first (en/à)
Decide en vs à before writing the rest of the sentence: en for a vehicle you travel inside (en train, en bus, en voiture), à for one you sit astride or none at all (à vélo, à moto, à pied). Fixing the preposition first stops the dans en bus / en vélo slip.
Match a movement verb to each stage
Sequence a journey stage by stage: partir (leave) → prendre (board) → attendre (wait for) → descendre (get off) → arriver (arrive). Remember partir/descendre/arriver need être in the perfect. A precise verb per stage beats repeating aller.
Add a duration or time detail
Extend a journey answer with at least one time detail: le trajet dure vingt minutes (using durer), or a clock time je pars à huit heures. A time detail adds concrete content examiners reward and shows control of durer, which weaker candidates avoid.
For directions, keep où fixed + imperatives
For directions, keep où fixed and give imperatives: tournez à gauche, continuez tout droit, traversez la rue. Before a destination, contract: au (à + le), aux (à + les); à la and à l' stay. Never leave à le unresolved.
Getting around, buying tickets and asking for directions are recurring Speaking role-play and Writing topics — the vocabulary is compact, but the prepositions and movement verbs need to be precise.
Means of transport (preposition first — decide en or à before the noun):
| French | English | Preposition |
|---|---|---|
| le train | train | en train |
| le bus | bus (in town) | en bus |
| le car | coach (long-distance) | en car |
| le métro | underground/metro | en métro |
| la voiture | car | en voiture |
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