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A1 French story: the sofa will not fit through the door

Edited by Chris Lee · Updated · About the library

Read a short A1 French moving-day story about a sofa and two doors. Follow grand, étroit, large, devant and derrière to discover the route inside.

In short

Étroit means narrow; large means wide. In this story, the sofa cannot pass through the narrow front door. Nour and Alex use the wider door at the back of the house. Follow devant and derrière to understand how they change the route.

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A large blue sofa is moved from a van toward a house with a narrow front door and a wider garden patio door.
The wider rear doorway offers a route for a sofa that cannot pass through the narrow front entrance. Illustration: Atelier

Nour is moving into a small house with a garden. Her friend Alex helps with the sofa. The first route seems obvious, but the size of the entrance creates a problem. Read for the doorway that fails and the different opening that solves it.

A1 · Moving in

Le canapé attend dehors

Nour et Alex arrivent devant la petite maison. Dans la camionnette, il y a des cartons, une table et un grand canapé1 bleu. Nour ouvre la porte d’entrée. Alex regarde le canapé, puis la porte. « Le canapé est très grand, et cette porte est étroite2 », dit-il.

Ils posent le canapé devant la maison. Nour entre et regarde le couloir. Il est petit aussi. « On ne peut pas passer3 ici », dit-elle. Alex s’assoit sur un carton. Il cherche une autre idée.

Nour va dans le salon. Au fond, elle voit une grande porte-fenêtre. Elle l’ouvre et sort dans le jardin4. « Alex ! Viens voir ! Cette porte est plus large5. » Alex fait le tour de la maison et rejoint Nour. Le jardin est derrière6 la maison, et un chemin le relie à la rue.

Les deux amis déplacent le canapé le long du chemin. Cette fois, ils passent par la grande porte-fenêtre. Le canapé entre dans le salon. Nour le place devant le mur blanc, à côté de la table.

Alex regarde la petite porte d’entrée depuis le salon. « Finalement, la porte du jardin est notre grande entrée ! » Nour rit. Les cartons peuvent passer par le couloir, mais le canapé a son propre chemin.

Read it in English

Nour and Alex arrive in front of the little house. In the van, there are boxes, a table and a large blue sofa. Nour opens the front door. Alex looks at the sofa, then the door. “The sofa is very big, and this door is narrow,” he says.

They put the sofa down in front of the house. Nour goes inside and looks at the corridor. It is small too. “We can’t get through here,” she says. Alex sits on a box. He looks for another idea.

Nour goes into the living room. At the far end, she sees a large French window. She opens it and goes into the garden. “Alex! Come and see! This door is wider.” Alex walks around the house and joins Nour. The garden is behind the house, and a path connects it to the street.

The two friends move the sofa along the path. This time, they go through the large French window. The sofa enters the living room. Nour places it in front of the white wall, beside the table.

Alex looks at the small front door from the living room. “In the end, the garden door is our big entrance!” Nour laughs. The boxes can pass through the corridor, but the sofa has its own route.

Question 1No account needed
Why does the first route fail?

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

The door and corridor are too small for the sofa.. Alex calls the first door narrow, and Nour finds the corridor small too.

Question 2No account needed
Where is the garden?

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

At the back of the house. The text explicitly says Le jardin est derrière la maison.

Question 3No account needed
Which opening finally lets the sofa into the living room?

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

The wider garden French window. They take the path to the garden and pass through the large porte-fenêtre.

Large in French describes width in the door comparison; grand describes the sofa’s overall size. Devant places the waiting sofa in front of the house at first. Derrière identifies the garden at the back. Those details work together to explain the new route rather than simply adding decoration to the scene.

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