MockoWhen a TEF dialogue involves a car journey, examiners expect you to catch specific route words: turn, motorway, roundabout, toll, kilometre. At A1 level these words appear in very simple exchanges, but missing just one can send you to the wrong picture or the wrong answer. This lesson gives you the core car-route vocabulary, shows each word in a short authentic sentence, and tells you what to listen for first when a route is being described.
What you’ll learn
- Recognise essential French words for roads, junctions, and directions
- Understand simple instructions like "turn left", "take the motorway", "exit at the roundabout"
- Follow a basic spoken route plan in an exam dialogue
- Avoid confusing similar-sounding direction words
Roads and route types
French has distinct words for each type of road. Knowing them stops you from confusing a village lane with a major motorway in a route description.
- la route: road (generic, often a national or rural road)
- l'autoroute (f): motorway, highway
- la nationale: national road (often abbreviated RN)
- la départementale: regional road (abbreviated D)
- la rue: street (in a town or city)
- l'avenue (f): avenue (wide urban road, often tree-lined)
- le boulevard: boulevard
- l'allée (f): lane, path, alley
Prenez l'autoroute A6 jusqu'à Lyon, puis sortez sur la nationale.
Take the A6 motorway as far as Lyon, then exit onto the national road.
Direction words and turning
Directions are the heart of any route description. These eight words cover almost every instruction you will hear.
- tout droit: straight ahead
- à gauche: to the left
- à droite: to the right
- tournez / prenez à gauche: turn left
- tournez / prenez à droite: turn right
- continuez: continue, carry on
- revenez en arrière: go back, turn back
- faites demi-tour: do a U-turn
Continuez tout droit pendant deux kilomètres, puis tournez à droite au feu.
Go straight ahead for two kilometres, then turn right at the traffic light.
Gauche vs. droite: a classic mix-up
- In fast speech, "gauche" and "droite" sound very different but learners sometimes miss the first consonant. Listen for the G sound in "gauche" (like the G in "genre") and the D in "droite".
- If you miss the direction, watch for other clues in the sentence: "vers le parc" (toward the park), "devant la mairie" (in front of the town hall).
Key landmarks and junctions
Speakers rarely say just "turn right." They anchor the turn to a landmark. These are the most common reference points in TEF route dialogues.
- le carrefour: crossroads, intersection
- le rond-point: roundabout
- le feu (rouge): traffic light
- le péage: toll booth (common on autoroutes)
- la sortie: exit (motorway or roundabout exit)
- le panneau: road sign
- le pont: bridge
- le tunnel: tunnel
- le parking: car park
- l'aire de repos (f): rest area (motorway)
Au rond-point, prenez la deuxième sortie, puis suivez les panneaux pour le centre-ville.
At the roundabout, take the second exit, then follow the signs for the town centre.
Distance and time on the road
Route descriptions usually include a distance or a rough travel time. These simple expressions come up constantly.
- à (dix) kilomètres d'ici: (ten) kilometres from here
- à environ: approximately, about
- à (vingt) minutes de route: (twenty) minutes by road
- pas loin / tout près: not far / very close
- assez loin: quite far
- juste après / juste avant: just after / just before
C'est à environ quarante minutes de route, juste après le péage.
It's about forty minutes by road, just past the toll booth.
Numbers in routes
- "La deuxième sortie", "le troisième feu", "cinq kilomètres": ordinal and cardinal numbers come up often. Make sure you can quickly process vingt (20), trente (30), quarante (40), cinquante (50), and cent (100) when they appear with "kilomètres" or "minutes".
Useful verbs for describing a route
Route instructions use a small set of verbs, usually in the imperative or infinitive. Learn these and you will understand almost any direction.
- suivre (suivez): to follow (follow the signs)
- prendre (prenez): to take (take the motorway, take the exit)
- tourner (tournez): to turn
- traverser (traversez): to cross (cross the bridge)
- longer (longez): to go along (go along the river)
- passer (passez): to go past (go past the church)
- rester (restez): to stay on (stay on the main road)
- sortir (sortez): to exit
Suivez la route nationale, passez devant l'église, traversez le pont et tournez à gauche.
Follow the national road, go past the church, cross the bridge, and turn left.
How to practise this
The best way to fix route vocabulary is to actually use it while driving or walking. Here are two realistic drills.
Two quick practice ideas
- GPS drill: set your phone's navigation language to French and listen to each instruction. After a few drives you will know "au prochain rond-point, prenez la deuxième sortie" without thinking.
- Route dictation: ask a French speaker (or a language model) to describe a route from one city to another in simple French. Write down the key turns and landmarks as you listen, then check your notes against the description.
- Flashcard the junction words: put each word on a card with a small sketch (a roundabout, a traffic light, a toll booth). Visualising the object makes the French word stick faster than rote repetition.
Key takeaways
- The four most important categories are road types, direction words, junction landmarks, and distances.
- Direction words (gauche, droite, tout droit) are short and fast: train your ear to catch them at natural speech speed.
- Roundabouts (rond-points) are anchored by exit numbers: "deuxième sortie" means take the second exit.
- Verbs like suivre, prendre, tourner, and traverser signal the action; the landmark tells you where to do it.
- Listening in French GPS mode is one of the most efficient free ways to absorb this vocabulary before your exam.
