Question 1

How would I ask "Where are you meeting a friend?" using the structure from this lesson?

Accepted Answer

You would ask: Où est-ce que tu retrouves un ami ? You start with the question word Où (Where), add est-ce que, and then follow it with the subject and verb (tu retrouves).

Question 2

If I wanted to ask "Who are you meeting?", how would I say that?

Accepted Answer

Using this lesson's structure, you would say: Qui est-ce que tu retrouves ? First comes the question word Qui (Who), then est-ce que, and finally the rest of your sentence.

Question 3

Why is retrouve used for "meeting" here instead of rencontre?

Accepted Answer

In French, rencontrer is mostly used when meeting someone for the first time or bumping into someone by accident. When you are intentionally meeting up with someone you already know, like a friend, you use retrouver (which literally means "to find again").

Question 4

The English translation says "I am meeting". Why doesn't the French sentence have a word for "am"?

Accepted Answer

French doesn't have a separate "-ing" tense (like "I am meeting") to show an action happening right now. The simple present tense je retrouve covers both "I meet" and "I am meeting".

Question 5

Why is it au café and not à le café?

Accepted Answer

In French, when the preposition à (at/to) is followed by the masculine word le (the), they must merge together into au. You will never write à le; it is always replaced by au.

Je retrouve un ami au café.

Breakdown of Je retrouve un ami au café.

Questions & Answers about Je retrouve un ami au café.

Learn Je retrouve un ami au café and more in French