Questions & Answers about Où est le plan ? Il est à côté de l'ordinateur.
Why is there an accent mark on où?
In French, où with an accent over the 'u' means 'where'. Without the accent, ou means 'or'. They sound exactly the same, so the accent is just there to tell them apart in writing! Doesn't plan mean a plan or project? Why is it translated as map?
It can mean both! In French, un plan is often used for a city map, a subway map, or a floor plan. If you are talking about a map of a country or the world, you would use une carte instead. Why does the second sentence start with il instead of a word for 'it'?
French doesn't have a neutral word for 'it'. Since all nouns have a gender, you use il (he) to replace masculine nouns and elle (she) to replace feminine nouns. Because le plan is masculine, we use il to mean 'it' here. How does à côté de work here?
À côté de is a fixed phrase that means 'next to' or 'beside'. The word côté means 'side', so it literally translates to 'at the side of'. Here, it connects directly with l'ordinateur to tell us where the map is located. Why is it de l'ordinateur instead of de le ordinateur?
In French, words like le and la drop their vowel when the next word starts with a vowel or a silent 'h'. Since ordinateur starts with an 'o', the le becomes l' so the words flow together smoothly. Learn Où est le plan ? Il est à côté de l'ordinateur and more in French
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