Breakdown of L'entraînement commence toujours tôt le matin.
toujours
always
commencer
to start
le matin
the morning
tôt
early
Questions & Answers about L'entraînement commence toujours tôt le matin.
Why is toujours placed right after commence instead of before it?
In French, adverbs of frequency like toujours (always), souvent (often), and parfois (sometimes) usually go directly after the conjugated verb. In English, we say "always starts", but in French, the word order has to be commence toujours (literally "starts always").
Why does it say le matin instead of a literal translation like "dans le matin" for "in the morning"?
When talking about regular parts of the day, French just uses the word le (the) without any preposition like "in". So, "in the morning" is simply le matin, "in the afternoon" is l'après-midi, and "in the evening" is le soir.
Is it normal to have two adverbs right next to each other like toujours tôt?
Yes! toujours tells us how often the workout starts, and tôt tells us when. Because an adverb of frequency like toujours must stick close to the verb commence, the time adverb tôt (early) naturally gets pushed right after it.