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Graded story · A2 · 170 words

La clé perdue: a short French story for A2 readers

Edited by Chris Lee · Updated · About the library

Inès comes home with croissants and no keys. Read the story with notes in the margin, check three questions, then look at how the past tenses tell it.

A2 · story · 4 min

La clé perdue

Samedi matin, Inès est rentrée de la boulangerie avec deux croissants et le journal. Devant sa porte, elle a cherché ses clés dans son sac. Rien. Elle a vidé1 ses poches : un ticket de métro, un stylo, quelques pièces de monnaie2… mais pas de clés.

Elle a sonné chez sa voisine, Madame Roux, qui garde toujours un double3. Personne n’a répondu. « Elle est sûrement4 au marché », a pensé Inès.

Alors elle s’est assise sur les marches5 de l’escalier et elle a mangé un croissant. Dix minutes plus tard, un petit garçon est monté6. C’était Hugo, le fils des voisins du deuxième étage.

— Bonjour ! Vous attendez quelqu’un ?
— J’ai perdu mes clés, a expliqué Inès.

Hugo a souri et il a sorti quelque chose de sa poche.
— Des clés avec un porte-clés7 en forme de tour Eiffel ? Je les ai trouvées ce matin devant la boulangerie !

Inès a ri8. Elle a remercié Hugo et elle lui a donné le deuxième croissant.

Fin.

Read it in English

On Saturday morning, Inès came back from the bakery with two croissants and the newspaper. At her door, she looked for her keys in her bag. Nothing. She emptied her pockets: a metro ticket, a pen, a few coins… but no keys.

She rang her neighbour’s bell. Madame Roux always keeps a spare key. Nobody answered. “She’s probably at the market,” Inès thought.

So she sat down on the stairs and ate a croissant. Ten minutes later, a little boy came up. It was Hugo, the son of the neighbours on the second floor.

“Hello! Are you waiting for someone?” “I’ve lost my keys,” Inès explained.

Hugo smiled and took something out of his pocket. “Keys with an Eiffel Tower key ring? I found them this morning in front of the bakery!”

Inès laughed. She thanked Hugo and gave him the second croissant.

Did you follow it?

Three questions

QuestionNo account needed
Where was Inès before she got home?

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

à la boulangerie. The first sentence says she came back from the bakery: elle est rentrée de la boulangerie.

QuestionNo account needed
Why does Inès think Madame Roux doesn’t answer?

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

She is probably at the market.. Inès thinks: « Elle est sûrement au marché ». Sûrement means probably here, not surely.

QuestionNo account needed
Where did Hugo find the keys?

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

in front of the bakery. Hugo says: je les ai trouvées ce matin devant la boulangerie. Les stands for les clés, so trouvées agrees with it.

Notice the tenses

Events and the scene around them

Almost every verb is in the passé composé because the story is a chain of events: elle a cherché, elle a vidé, elle a sonné. Two sentences step out of the chain to describe instead: C’était Hugo and Madame Roux, qui garde toujours un double, a habit that is still true.

Watch the verbs with être: Inès est rentrée, elle s’est assise, un petit garçon est monté. The participle agrees with the person doing the action.

Keep going

Original story written for this page. Margin notes give the meaning in this story, not every meaning of the word.