LESSON NOTES

Survival Phrases #6
Where Is the Bathroom?

CONTENTS
2 French
2 English
2 Vocabulary
2 Sample Sentences
3 Grammar
3 Cultural Insight

# 6
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 FRENCH

1. Où sont les toilettes?

2. Les toilettes, s’il vous plaît.

ENGLISH

1. Where are the toilets?

2. The toilets, please.

VOCABULARY

Fr e nc h English C lass Ge nde r

toilettes restrooms noun feminine plural

où where adverb

salle de bain bathroom (not toilet) noun

papier toilette toilet paper noun masculine

hommes men's noun

dames ladies noun

s'il vous plaît please (formal) expression

SAMPLE SENTENCES

Les toilettes sont ici. Tu habites où, déjà? J'habite à Paris.

"The restrooms are here." "Where do you live, again? I live in

Paris."

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Où tu es? Je suis dans la salle de bain.

"Where are you?" "I am in the bathroom."

Je n'ai plus de papier toilette. Les toilettes pour hommes.

"I am out of toilet paper." "Men's room."

Les toilettes pour dames. Vous pouvez me donner un café, s'il vous
plaît ?
"Ladies' room."
"Can you give me a coffee, please?"

GRAMMAR

Finding the bathroom in France is a snap. All you really need are the words les toilettes, and
someone will show you the way. However, one common mistake is to say the phrase in the
singular form, la toilette, which means essentially "washing and grooming" and not bathroom.
So be sure to say LES toilettes, as in general there are more than one.

In French, "Where is the bathroom?" is Où sont les toilettes?

Let's take a look at the components. The first word, où, means "where." It is followed by sont,
which in English means "are." So to recap, we have où sont. Literally, this means "where are."
The next word, les, means "the." It is followed by toilettes, which means "toilets."

So all together, we have où sont les toilettes? Literally, this means "where are the toilets?"

A shorter way of asking for the bathroom is to say les toilettes, s'il vous plaît, which means "the
bathroom, please." Thankfully, it is made of words we have already learned.

CULTURAL INSIGHT

Learn These Words So You Don't Make a Mistake!

In French, you may hear or read several words for toilet. Other than toilette, you will often see
and hear wc, which we pronounce "vay-say." A very gruff way of saying toilet is la commode.
You can impress your close French friends with this one. Another word for bathroom is salle de
bains, but this is not the toilet. Salle de bain literally means "room of baths," and we translate it
as "bathroom." This room has sinks, showers, and baths but no toilets. The French often keep
showers and toilets separate. Another term for salle de bains is salle d'eau or "water room," but

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this is rare. Lastly, if you are looking for "toilet paper," the term is papier toilette.

Men's and women's bathrooms are marked in different ways. Most commonly, the men's is
marked Hommes and the women's Femmes. Sometimes this is shortened to just H and F.
Remember which is which so you don't make a mistake! In general, to express the men's area
and the women's area, say for dressing rooms, the French say chez les hommes for the men
and chez les femmes for the women. Another more fancy way to write and say it is messieurs
for men and dames for women. You may find this in more upscale places like restaurants.

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