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Le journaliste vient de publier un article.

Le journaliste vient de publier un article.
The journalist just published an article.
From Lesson 70:The recent past (venir de + infinitive)·French

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?
The word itself doesn't change! Professions and nouns that end in -iste are usually identical for both men and women. To show the person's gender, you simply change the article in front of it. A male journalist is le journaliste (as seen in this sentence), and a female journalist is la journaliste.
Is article the exact same word as in English?
It is a true cognate, meaning it is spelled exactly the same and has the same meaning (a piece of writing in a publication). However, it is pronounced with French sounds, and it has a gender. It is a masculine noun, which is why it uses the masculine word for "an", un.

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