Regarding the question « I am going to Lucie’s house « from the lesson and the video included in the lesson, I understand chez to mean home and maison

Question

and maison to mean house. So why is my answer nous avons à la maison incorrect in the test? The answer was chez in the test

Accepted Answer

Hi Debra,
Just to add to what Chris has just said:
Nous allons chez Lucie = I am going to Lucie's house.
I think what you were thinking of is, "Nous allons à la maison" not 'havons' which makes no sense .
You cannot in this case  say "Nous allons à la maison de Lucie" which sounds like what a very young child might say.
Hope this helps!

Answer

Hi Debra,
"Nous avons à la maison" is grammatically incorrect, it means "We have at the house." You could say:
Nous étions à la maison. -- We were at the house. Or, as the topic suggests:Nous étions chez nous. -- We were at our place. (can also mean "at home")
As a rough guideline, whenever you would, in English, say "at someone's place" you use "chez" in French.
"À la maison" is also in common use and means "at the house" or "at home".
Tu es où ? --  Je suis à la maison. -- Where are you? I am at the house (at home).
-- Chris.

Answer

Chez is one of those wonderful Fench words that conveys a multitude of meanings.
As well as the meaning cited above (at someone's place) it also has the following uses:

of/with:  C'est une conviction fondamentale chez moi - It is a fundamental belief of mine (with me).
in (the works of): Le rôle de la socialisation chez Zola - The role of socialisation in (the works of) Zola.
among: L'hypochondrie est répandue chez les Français - Hypochondria is widespread among the French.
in (possesive pronoun) country : La réligion est sur le déclin chez nous - Religion is on the decline in our country.

There are bound to be more uses that I cannot think of.

Answer

Thank you everyone