A2MessageEveryday life1 min

Quarante minutes de retard

Yanis’s train is late, Camille is already waiting — a chat changes the meeting place.

A chat between two friends. Watch the near future with aller + infinitive (je vais faire un tour) and en attendant.

Yanis

Camille, mauvaise nouvelle : mon train a du retard. Quarante minutes !

Camille

Pas de chance ! Je suis déjà au café devant la gare.

Yanis

Je suis désolé. Il y a un problème sur la voie.

Camille

Ce n’est pas grave. En attendant, je vais faire un tour au centre commercial.

Yanis

D’accord. On se voit où, alors ?

Camille

Devant le magasin de livres, au premier étage. Tu connais ?

Yanis

Oui, je connais. J’arrive vers quatre heures et demie.

Camille

Très bien. Tu as faim ? Je peux acheter quelque chose.

Yanis

Oui, très faim ! Un gâteau, s’il te plaît. Merci !

Words: 90
Sentences: 20
Words per sentence: 4.5
in the vocabulary: 100 %
measured level: A2
Reading time: 1 min

Grammar in this text

These forms appear in the text in real use. Switch on “Show grammar” above the text to highlight them.

je vais faire
The near future: aller + infinitive — je vais faire un tour. Near future: aller + infinitive →
Ce n’est pas grave
ce n’est pas grave — in a chat the ne is often dropped, or even more: pas grave. Negation: ne … pas →

The words from A2 up in this text

Not the hard words in general, but those at your level: all 6 of the 69 words in this text are at A2 or above. You will know everything else by the time you get here.

commercial
commercial, shopping
A2
la chance
the luck
A2
le centre
the centre
A2
le problème
the problem
A2
le retard
the delay
A2
le tour
the turn
A2

The word lists for this text

The words in this text appear in 15 lists on this site; the number after each says how many come from that list. Having read the text, you have just needed these very words — and can practise exactly them.

Irregular verbs 8 The town and the way there 6 Numbers and time 5 Words for everything 3 Greetings and politeness 3 Food and drink 3 Colours and qualities 3 The most important verbs 3 Words for thinking 2 Words for anything 1 Words without a topic III 1 The body and health 1 Travel and transport 1 School and learning 1 Living and the household 1

Comprehension questions

4 questions on the text. With each answer the sentence it comes from appears — a question whose answer you cannot find in the text tests nothing.

1. Combien de retard a le train de Yanis ?

2. Qu’est-ce que Camille va faire en attendant ?

3. Où est-ce qu’ils vont se voir ?

4. Qu’est-ce que Yanis veut manger ?