Breakdown of Il vient de boire du café et d'acheter un journal.
un
a / an (masculine)
il
he
le café
the coffee
et
and
boire
to drink
acheter
to buy
venir
to come
du
some (partitive, masculine)
le journal
the newspaper
Questions & Answers about Il vient de boire du café et d'acheter un journal.
How does vient de boire translate to "just drank"?
In French, to say that something just happened, you use the present tense of venir (to come) + de + an infinitive verb (the unconjugated action word, like boire). Literally, il vient de boire means "he comes from to drink," but it is the standard way to say "he just drank."
Why is it et d'acheter instead of repeating et vient d'acheter?
Why is there an apostrophe in d'acheter?
When the word de is followed by a word starting with a vowel (like acheter), the "e" is dropped and replaced with an apostrophe to make pronunciation smoother. So, de acheter becomes d'acheter.
Why use du café and not just café?
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