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Le vendeur pèse les légumes à la caisse.

Le vendeur pèse les légumes à la caisse.
The seller weighs the vegetables at the checkout.
From Lesson 82:Present tense stem changes (e to è)·French

Questions & Answers about Le vendeur pèse les légumes à la caisse.

Why does pèse have an accent mark when the infinitive peser does not?
This is a stem-changing verb! For verbs like peser (to weigh) or acheter (to buy), the unaccented e in the stem changes to an è (with a grave accent) in the present tense for the je, tu, il/elle/on, and ils/elles forms. Since le vendeur is a 'he' (il), we write pèse.
Does the accent change how pèse is pronounced compared to peser?
Yes, it completely changes the vowel sound! The unaccented e in peser sounds like a soft 'uh' (like in 'the'). The è in pèse changes the sound to an open 'eh' (like in 'pet'). This helps make the word easier to say when the ending is a silent 'e'.
Is vendeur related to the verb vendre (to sell)?
Exactly! Just like adding '-er' to a verb in English creates a noun for the person doing it (sell becomes seller), adding -eur to a verb stem in French often does the same thing. If the seller were a woman, she would be la vendeuse.
Doesn't caisse usually mean 'box'?
Une caisse literally means a box or crate, but in a store or supermarket, it specifically refers to the cash register. By extension, it means the checkout counter or till where you pay for your items.
Why do we use à la caisse instead of au caisse?
Caisse is a feminine noun (la caisse). The preposition à (at/to) only merges with the masculine article le to become au. Because caisse is feminine, à and la stay as two separate words.

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