Excusez-moi, monsieur, où est la station de métro?

Excusez-moi uses the vous form of the verb excuser. In French, vous is used when speaking politely to one person or to more than one person.

Since the speaker is addressing monsieur, this is a formal situation, so excusez-moi is the natural choice.

• excuse-moi = informal, used with tu
• excusez-moi = polite/formal, used with vous

In French, when an object pronoun like moi comes after an imperative verb, it is linked with a hyphen.

So:

• Excusez-moi
• Regardez-moi
• Écoutez-moi

This is standard French spelling for affirmative commands.

Monsieur is a polite form of address, like sir in English. It shows respect and is commonly used when speaking to a man you do not know.

In this sentence, it helps make the request sound courteous:

• Excusez-moi, monsieur...

A woman would be addressed as madame instead.

Où means where, and it takes a grave accent: ù.

This accent helps distinguish it from ou, which means or.

So:

• où = where
• ou = or

Even though they sound similar, the accent is important in writing because it changes the meaning.

This sentence already is où est la station de métro ?, and that is a very normal French question pattern.

French has several ways to ask questions:

• Où est la station de métro ? = natural and common
• Où se trouve la station de métro ? = slightly more formal
• La station de métro est où ? = more conversational

Unlike English, French does not always need a strong word-order change to form a question. Here, starting with où and using question intonation is enough.

La station de métro means the metro station. French often uses the definite article when asking for the location of something specific that both speaker and listener can identify from context.

If you said une station de métro, it would sound more like a metro station, meaning any one of them, not necessarily the one you are looking for.

So:

• Où est la station de métro ? = Where is the metro station?
• Où est une station de métro ? = Where is a metro station? / Is there any metro station around?

The second one is possible, but less natural in many situations.

In la station de métro, the phrase de métro describes the type of station: a metro station.

French often uses de + noun without an article when one noun classifies another:

• une salle de classe
• une tasse de thé
• une station de métro

If you said la station du métro, it would suggest the station of the metro, which sounds different and usually not what you want here.

The subject of the verb is la station, which is singular and feminine.

So French uses:

• la station est = the station is

If the subject were plural, the verb would change:

• les stations sont

The gender does not change the form of est here; only the number matters.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

ehk-skyoo-zay mwah, muh-syuh, oo eh lah sta-syon duh may-troh

A few notes:

• Excusez ends with an ay sound
• moi sounds like mwah
• monsieur is roughly muh-syuh
• où sounds like oo
• station has a nasal ending: sta-syon
• métro is may-troh

French pronunciation is smoother and more connected than English, so try not to pronounce every letter strongly.

They are similar, but not always identical.

• Excusez-moi = Excuse me
• Pardon = Sorry / Pardon / Excuse me

Both can be used to get someone’s attention politely.
Excusez-moi often sounds a bit fuller and more explicitly polite in a sentence like this.

For example:

• Excusez-moi, monsieur...
• Pardon, monsieur...

Both are natural, but Excusez-moi is especially common for politely starting a question.

Yes, you could, but you do not have to.

For example:

• Excusez-moi, monsieur, où est la station de métro, s’il vous plaît ?

This makes the question even more polite. However, the original sentence is already polite because it includes:

• Excusez-moi
• monsieur
• the vous form in excusez

So s’il vous plaît is optional, not required.

English often uses do to form questions:

• Where is the station?
• Where do you live?

French does not use an equivalent helper verb in this way. Instead, it forms questions through:

• word order
• question words like où
• intonation
• sometimes inversion

So French simply says:

• Où est la station de métro ?

There is no separate word corresponding to English do here.