Breakdown of Le journaliste vient de publier un article.
un
a / an (masculine)
venir
to come
le
him, it (masculine direct object pronoun)
le journaliste
the journalist
Questions & Answers about Le journaliste vient de publier un article.
How does vient de publier translate to "just published"?
To say someone "just" did something, French uses a structure called the recent past. It is formed using the verb venir (to come) + de + an infinitive verb. Here, vient is the "he/she/it" form of venir. It literally means the journalist "comes from publishing" an article, which is how French expresses that it just happened.
Why isn't publier conjugated to match the journalist?
Because of the venir de structure. In French, when an action verb directly follows a preposition like de, it always stays in its unconjugated dictionary form (the infinitive). The first verb (vient) is the only one that gets conjugated to match the subject (le journaliste).
Does the word journaliste change if the journalist is a woman?
Is article the exact same word as in English?