Question 1

How does this sentence say "just wrote" and "just read" without using the past tense?

Accepted Answer

French uses a special formula for actions that just happened (the recent past): the verb conjugated form of venir (to come) + de + the infinitive (the dictionary form) of the action verb. So il vient d'écrire literally means "he comes from to write," which translates to "he just wrote."

Question 2

Why is it vient d'écrire with an apostrophe, but viens de le lire as separate words?

Accepted Answer

The word de must drop its 'e' and use an apostrophe whenever the very next word begins with a vowel or a silent 'h'. Because écrire starts with a vowel, we write d'écrire. The word le starts with a consonant, so de le lire stays as separate words.

Question 3

Why use cet article for "this article" instead of ce article?

Accepted Answer

Article is a masculine noun. Normally, "this" or "that" for a masculine noun is ce. But because article starts with a vowel, saying ce article would sound clunky to a French speaker. You must use cet before masculine words starting with a vowel so the words link together smoothly.

Question 4

Why is le (it) placed before lire in je viens de le lire?

Accepted Answer

In English, we put "it" after the verb ("read it"). In French, object pronouns almost always go before the verb they belong to. When using a structure with an infinitive verb like the recent past, the pronoun goes immediately before the infinitive. So, it becomes de le lire.

Le journaliste vient d'écrire cet article et je viens de le lire.

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