Learn French: Je soulève toujours des poids avec un ami. - I always lift weights with a friend.

In French, adverbs of frequency like toujours (always), souvent (often), and parfois (sometimes) must go directly after the conjugated verb. So instead of 'I always lift', French speakers say 'I lift always' (Je soulève toujours).

Why is there a grave accent on soulève? The dictionary verb is soulever without an accent.

Soulever (to lift) has a spelling change to make it easier to pronounce. For the 'I', 'you', 'he/she', and 'they' forms, the e changes to è. You might remember this same pattern from the verb acheter (to buy), which becomes j'achète.

Why do we use des poids instead of just poids or les poids?

In French, nouns almost always need an article (like a, the, or some) before them. Des is the plural of un or une, meaning 'some'. The speaker is lifting weights in general, not specific weights, so we say des poids.

How do you pronounce poids? Are the letters at the end silent?

Yes, both the d and the s are completely silent! The word poids is pronounced like 'pwah'.