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Nous aimons manger sur le balcon chez ma sœur.

Nous aimons manger sur le balcon chez ma sœur.
We like eating on the balcony at my sister's place.
From Lesson 93:The preposition at someone's place (chez)·French

Questions & Answers about Nous aimons manger sur le balcon chez ma sœur.

How does "chez" work here? Why not just say "à la maison de ma sœur"?
The preposition chez is a very handy word that means "at the home of" or "at the place of." While à la maison de ma sœur is understandable, native speakers almost always use chez because it is much shorter and more natural. You can use it with nouns (chez ma sœur), names (chez Paul), or pronouns (chez moi).
Why is "manger" in its dictionary form instead of being conjugated?
In French, when you have two verbs directly next to each other, only the first one is conjugated. Here, aimons is conjugated to match Nous, so the second verb, manger (to eat), has to stay in its infinitive (unconjugated) form. The sentence literally translates as "We like to eat..."
Why do we use "sur" (on) instead of "dans" (in) for the balcony?
Just like in English, you are "on" a balcony rather than "in" it. French uses sur (on) for open, flat spaces that you stand on. You would use dans (in) for enclosed rooms, like dans la cuisine (in the kitchen).
Should I pronounce the 's' at the end of "Nous"?
Yes, you should make a liaison! Because Nous ends in an 's' and the next word (aimons) starts with a vowel, the 's' connects to the vowel and makes a 'z' sound. It is pronounced like "Noo-zeh-mohn".

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