Breakdown of Le bus arrive à l'arrêt.
à
at / to / in (general locations) / about (what one thinks about / reacts to)
le bus
the bus
arriver
to arrive
l'arrêt
the stop (m)
Questions & Answers about Le bus arrive à l'arrêt.
Since the lesson is about venir (to come), why don't we use it here instead of arrive?
The translation says "is arriving", but isn't arrive just "arrives"?
It translates to both! French doesn't have a separate "-ing" tense (like "is arriving" or "is eating") to describe things happening right now. The simple present tense word arrive handles both "arrives" (as a general fact) and "is arriving" (at this very moment). Context tells you which one makes sense.
Why is it l'arrêt instead of le arrêt?
Arrêt is a masculine noun, so the word for "the" is normally le. But because arrêt starts with a vowel, the e in le is dropped and replaced with an apostrophe. This forces the two words to flow together smoothly as a single sound, which the French language loves to do!
What does the little accent mark on à do?
The accent mark changes the meaning of the word entirely, even though the pronunciation stays exactly the same. à with the accent is a connecting word meaning "at", "to", or "in" (like in this sentence). Without the accent, a is the verb "has" (from avoir).
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