Directions in French: A comprehensive vocabulary guide

Key takeaways

• The most useful directions in French start with à gauche, à droite, tout droit, près de, and en face de.
• Ask politely with Excusez-moi, où est…?, then listen for imperative verbs like allez, tournez, prenez, and continuez.
• French building directions use rez-de-chaussée for ground floor and premier étage for the floor above it, so a French “deuxième étage” is an American third floor.
• Practicing street, station, hotel, and taxi role-plays with a French language tutor builds the speed you need when someone rattles off three turns in a single breath.

 

Directions in French become much easier when you know four groups of words: movement phrases, place words, direction verbs, and polite questions. Start with à gauche for left, à droite for right, tout droit for straight ahead, and Où est…? for “Where is…?”

A French tutor can walk you through a simulated Paris street scene, correct the way you say tournez mid-sentence, and throw follow-up questions at you the way a real stranger would. That turns direction vocabulary from a memorized list into something you can use under pressure.

Left, right, straight, near, far: the ten direction words you will hear most

These ten words appear in almost every street, metro, hotel, and restaurant direction a French speaker will give you. They split into two groups: movement (where to go) and position (where something sits).

French	Pronunciation guide	English	Example
à gauche	ah gohsh	to the left, on the left	Tournez à gauche. Turn left.
à droite	ah drwaht	to the right, on the right	C’est à droite. It’s on the right.
tout droit	too drwah	straight ahead	Allez tout droit. Go straight ahead.
en face de	ahn fahs duh	across from, facing	C’est en face de la gare. It’s across from the station.
près de	preh duh	near	C’est près de l’hôtel. It’s near the hotel.
loin de	lwahn duh	far from	Ce n’est pas loin d’ici. It’s not far from here.
devant	duh-vahn	in front of	Je suis devant la banque. I’m in front of the bank.
derrière	deh-ryehr	behind	Le café est derrière l’église. The cafe is behind the church.
au coin de	oh kwahn duh	at the corner of	C’est au coin de la rue. It’s at the corner of the street.
au bout de	oh boo duh	at the end of	La poste est au bout de la rue. The post office is at the end of the street.

Drill these in opposite pairs rather than in alphabetical order. Say à gauche while pointing left, then immediately say à droite while pointing right. Follow with devant / derrière, then près de / loin de, then au début de la rue / au bout de la rue. Pairing opposites and adding a physical gesture locks in the spatial meaning faster than re-reading the list, because your brain ties the French word to a direction you felt rather than an English translation you decoded.

Why “Je cherche” works better than “Où est” (and other ways to ask politely)

The safest opening is Excusez-moi, où est…? (“Excuse me, where is…?”). Use Excusez-moi with strangers, shop staff, drivers, and anyone you do not know well. But Où est…? is not always the best choice.

Je cherche… (“I’m looking for…”) works better when you are not sure the place is nearby. If you say Je cherche une pharmacie, a local will point you toward the nearest one even if it is several streets away. Où est la pharmacie ? implies you already know one exists close by and just need the exact spot. Getting this distinction right makes you sound like someone who has spent real time in France, not someone reading from a guidebook.

French question	Pronunciation guide	English
Excusez-moi, où est la gare ?	ehk-skew-zay mwah, oo eh lah gahr	Excuse me, where is the station?
Où sont les toilettes ?	oo sohn lay twah-leht	Where are the restrooms?
Comment aller à l’hôtel ?	koh-mahn ah-lay ah loh-tehl	How do I get to the hotel?
C’est loin d’ici ?	seh lwahn dee-see	Is it far from here?
Je cherche la rue Victor-Hugo.	zhuh shehrsh lah rew veek-tor ew-go	I’m looking for Victor Hugo Street.
Vous savez où est le métro ?	voo sah-vay oo eh luh may-tro	Do you know where the metro is?
Je suis perdu / perdue.	zhuh swee pehr-dew	I’m lost. (masc. / fem.)

Use où est with a single place and où sont with plural places: Où est la banque ? vs. Où sont les toilettes ?

Vous savez où est…?

is softer than Où est…? because it does not assume the stranger knows the answer. You hear it constantly in Paris from locals asking each other, not just tourists.

Three closers that make your French sound warmer:

• s’il vous plaît, please
• merci beaucoup, thank you very much
• bonne journée, have a good day

For airport, hotel, and restaurant phrases that build on these same patterns, the guide to French phrases for travel fills in the vocabulary around directions.

The five imperative verbs that carry every set of French directions

French directions rely on the imperative form: commands without a subject pronoun. The Open University explains that the French imperative uses the present tense form without the subject pronoun, so Continuez tout droit replaces Vous continuez tout droit. Five verbs do most of the work.

French verb phrase	Pronunciation guide	English	Example
allez	ah-lay	go	Allez tout droit. Go straight ahead.
tournez	toor-nay	turn	Tournez à droite. Turn right.
prenez	pruh-nay	take	Prenez la deuxième rue. Take the second street.
continuez	kohn-tee-new-ay	continue	Continuez jusqu’au feu. Continue until the traffic light.
traversez	trah-vehr-say	cross	Traversez la place. Cross the square.

Four more verbs appear regularly in indoor or transport directions:

French verb phrase	English	Example
montez	go up	Montez les escaliers. Go up the stairs.
descendez	go down	Descendez au rez-de-chaussée. Go down to the ground floor.
suivez	follow	Suivez cette rue. Follow this street.
passez devant	pass in front of	Passez devant la banque. Pass in front of the bank.

The word order in French direction sentences is almost always verb + direction or landmark:

• Tournez à gauche, turn left.
• Prenez la première rue à droite, take the first street on the right.
• Continuez tout droit jusqu’à la gare, keep going straight until the station.

Jusqu’à (“until” or “as far as”) is the glue connecting a movement verb to a destination. Pay attention to the contraction: jusqu’à + le becomes jusqu’au, the same way de + le becomes du.

• jusqu’au feu, until the traffic light
• jusqu’à la place, as far as the square
• jusqu’à l’arrêt de bus, as far as the bus stop

If articles and contractions feel shaky, the guide on French articles covers when and why these forms change.

One verb that learners underuse is suivez (“follow”). When someone says Suivez le boulevard jusqu’au rond-point, they mean you do not need to turn at all, just stay on the same road until the roundabout. Recognizing suivez saves you from asking a second question because you think you missed a turn instruction.

How “de” changes after every place word (and how to stop getting it wrong)

Place words tell you where a destination sits relative to a landmark: next to the bank, across from the station, between the hotel and the post office. Almost all of them end with de, and that de changes form depending on the noun that follows.

Here is how de behaves after every place word:

What follows	Form	Example
Masculine singular noun (le cinéma)	du	près du cinéma
Feminine singular noun (la gare)	de la	près de la gare
Noun starting with a vowel (l’hôtel)	de l’	près de l’hôtel
Plural noun (les toilettes)	des	près des toilettes

This pattern applies identically to à côté de, en face de, près de, loin de, au coin de, au bout de, and de l’autre côté de. Getting de right in one place word means you get it right in all of them.

French	English	Street example
à côté de	next to	La pharmacie est à côté de la banque.
en face de	across from	Le musée est en face de la mairie.
entre	between	Le café est entre l’hôtel et la poste.
au coin de	at the corner of	La boulangerie est au coin de la rue.
de l’autre côté de	on the other side of	C’est de l’autre côté du pont.

The mistake that reveals a beginner: saying de le instead of du. You will never hear a French speaker say près de le cinéma. It is always près du cinéma. If you catch yourself producing de le in speech, that is the one correction worth drilling until it disappears.

A practical way to internalize this: pick a room you know well, like your kitchen, and describe where five objects sit using only French place words. Le frigo est à côté de la porte. La table est en face de la fenêtre. Les chaises sont devant la table. Because you already know the spatial layout, your brain focuses entirely on the French structure rather than trying to decode meaning at the same time.

For a broader grammar foundation that covers de contractions beyond direction contexts, French prepositions fills in the wider picture.

Streets, stations, and the rez-de-chaussée problem: context-specific vocabulary

Street, transport, and building directions each recycle a small set of nouns. Recognize these nouns and you will catch the meaning even when the rest of the sentence goes by too fast.

Street vocabulary you will hear on foot

French	Pronunciation guide	English
la rue	lah rew	street
l’avenue	lah-vuh-new	avenue
le boulevard	luh bool-vahr	boulevard
la place	lah plahs	square
le carrefour	luh kahr-foor	crossroads
le feu	luh fuh	traffic light
le pont	luh pohn	bridge
le rond-point	luh rohn-pwahn	roundabout
le passage piéton	luh pah-sahzh pyay-tohn	crosswalk

Useful combinations:

• Prenez la deuxième rue à gauche. Take the second street on the left.
• Traversez au passage piéton. Cross at the crosswalk.
• Tournez après le feu. Turn after the traffic light.
• C’est juste avant le pont. It’s right before the bridge.

Transport vocabulary inside stations

French	English	Example
la gare	train station	Où est la gare ?
la station de métro	metro station	C’est près de la station de métro.
l’arrêt de bus	bus stop	Descendez à l’arrêt de bus.
le quai	platform	Allez au quai numéro trois.
la sortie	exit	Prenez la sortie à droite.
le guichet	ticket counter	Le guichet est à gauche.
la correspondance	transfer (between lines)	Prenez la correspondance à Châtelet.

One detail that trips up English speakers: inside a French train station, la sortie specifically means the way out to the street, not a platform exit. If someone says Prenez la sortie rue de Rivoli, they mean leave the station through the exit labeled “rue de Rivoli.” Moving between platforms uses correspondance instead.

The rez-de-chaussée problem in buildings

French	English	Example
le rez-de-chaussée	ground floor	La réception est au rez-de-chaussée.
le premier étage	first floor above ground	La chambre est au premier étage.
le deuxième étage	second floor above ground	Le bureau est au deuxième étage.
l’ascenseur	elevator	Prenez l’ascenseur.
les escaliers	stairs	Montez les escaliers.
le couloir	hallway	C’est au fond du couloir.
la porte	door	C’est la deuxième porte à gauche.

French floor numbering uses rez-de-chaussée for the ground floor, with le premier étage above it. This means a French deuxième étage corresponds to what Americans call the third floor. If a hotel receptionist says Votre chambre est au troisième étage, count four floors from the street. Getting this wrong means walking to the wrong floor of your hotel, which happens to English-speaking travelers constantly.

Build a small habit: every time you ride an elevator in real life, count the floors in French starting from rez-de-chaussée. That tiny repetition makes the word automatic when a clerk in Lyon or Montreal uses it.

Three direction exchanges you will actually have in France

Reading vocabulary tables gives you the raw material. These three dialogues show how French speakers combine that material in real exchanges, with the word order shifts and speed you should expect.

Finding a train station on foot

You: Excusez-moi, je cherche la gare. C’est par ici ? Excuse me, I’m looking for the station. Is it this way?

Local: Oui, allez tout droit, puis tournez à gauche au feu. La gare est en face de la poste. Yes, go straight ahead, then turn left at the traffic light. The station is across from the post office.

You: C’est loin d’ici ? Is it far from here?

Local: Non, cinq minutes à pied. No, five minutes on foot.

The local’s answer follows verb + direction + landmark: allez tout droit (movement), tournez à gauche (direction), au feu (landmark). Then a place word pins the final location: en face de la poste. This is the skeleton of almost every walking direction in French.

Getting elevator directions inside a hotel

You: Bonjour, où est l’ascenseur, s’il vous plaît ? Hello, where is the elevator, please?

Reception: Au bout du couloir, à droite. Votre chambre est au deuxième étage, la porte 204. At the end of the hallway, on the right. Your room is on the second floor above ground, door 204.

You: D’accord, merci. Okay, thank you.

Notice the receptionist puts the landmark first (au bout du couloir), then the direction (à droite). This reverses the street pattern. Both orders are common indoors. Your job is to grab the direction word and the landmark, regardless of which comes first.

Telling a driver exactly where you are

Driver: Vous êtes où exactement ? Where are you exactly?

You: Je suis devant la pharmacie, en face de la station de métro Belleville. I’m in front of the pharmacy, across from the Belleville metro station.

Driver: Restez là, j’arrive dans deux minutes. Stay there, I’ll arrive in two minutes.

Vous êtes où exactement ?

is a phrase you will hear from taxi drivers, delivery workers, and friends trying to find you. Answer with a landmark first: Je suis devant…, Je suis à côté de…, or Je suis en face de… Adding the proper name of the metro station or street makes you much easier to locate.

The difference between reading these dialogues and being able to hold them is response speed. You need someone who swaps the landmarks mid-conversation, adds a follow-up like Et ensuite ? (“And then?”), or shortens the answer to a single phrase like Tout droit, deuxième à gauche. That kind of pressure is where live tutoring has no substitute. Search for a French language tutor whose profile mentions travel French or conversation practice, and ask them to run a direction role-play in your first session.

The 15-minute map drill that replaces rereading a word list

Rereading a vocabulary list puts words into your recognition memory. It does not put them into your mouth. A map drill forces you to combine verbs, place words, and landmarks in the same breath, which is exactly what happens when someone on a Paris sidewalk asks you C’est par où ?

How to run the drill:

1. Draw a simple four-street grid on paper. Label four landmarks: la gare, la banque, la pharmacie, l’hôtel.
2. Describe where each landmark sits: La pharmacie est à côté de la banque. La gare est au bout de l’avenue.
3. Give a walking route from one landmark to another: Allez tout droit, puis tournez à droite. C’est en face de l’hôtel.
4. Ask a direction question out loud: Excusez-moi, comment aller à la gare ?
5. Answer your own question without looking at notes.

Then add complexity:

• Draw un pont (a bridge) and route around it: Traversez le pont, puis tournez à gauche.
• Add un feu (a traffic light) as a turn landmark: Tournez à droite au feu.
• Add un arrêt de bus and give directions from there: Descendez à l’arrêt de bus, puis allez tout droit.
• Move indoors: describe how to reach le deuxième étage from the lobby: Prenez l’ascenseur, c’est au deuxième étage, la deuxième porte à gauche.

Three pronunciation points to get right during the drill:

• gauche sounds like “gohsh” with a soft final “sh.” Drop any instinct to add a vowel at the end.
• droite has a tight “drwah” with the lips pulling slightly forward.
• rue requires rounded lips pushed out, not the English “roo.” The French u sound does not exist in English, so exaggerate the lip rounding until it feels strange.

For broader speaking drills beyond directions, French conversation practice covers more ways to move from prepared phrases to spontaneous speech.

Practice directions in French with live feedback

Directions in French become useful when you produce them in real time: asking where the station is while someone waits, telling a driver your exact location, or understanding a hotel clerk who says au fond du couloir, à gauche without needing it repeated. Knowing the words is the first step. Assembling them under pressure is the second.

Live correction gives you that second step: pronunciation feedback, practice with de/du/de la contractions, and the word-order instincts that only come from being corrected mid-sentence.

Learn French faster with personalized guidance from qualified French tutors trusted by over 10 million learners worldwide. Book a trial lesson and practice asking for, giving, and understanding French directions with a tutor who corrects you in real time.

FAQ

What is the difference between “tout droit” and “à droite”?

Tout droit means “straight ahead.” À droite means “to the right.” They sound similar but have opposite effects on your route. Listen for tout at the start to distinguish them.

Should I use “tu” or “vous” when asking a stranger for directions?

Always use vous with strangers. Say Excusez-moi (vous form), not Excuse-moi (tu form). Using tu with someone you do not know comes across as overly familiar.

How do I say “on the left side of the street” in French?

Say du côté gauche de la rue. For a simpler version, à gauche dans la rue works in casual speech.

What does “rez-de-chaussée” mean and why does it matter?

Rez-de-chaussée means ground floor. The floor above it is premier étage. This shifts every floor number down by one compared to American English, so a French troisième étage is an American fourth floor.

How do I tell a taxi driver where I am?

Start with Je suis devant… or Je suis en face de… followed by a visible landmark. Example: Je suis devant la boulangerie, en face de la station de métro.