Breakdown of Il travaille au bureau en portant des écouteurs, mais il est distrait.
être
to be
il
he
mais
but
travailler
to work
le bureau
the office / the desk
au
to the / at the (masculine singular)
porter
to wear
en
while / by (with gerund)
distrait
distracted
l'écouteur
the earphone (m)
Questions & Answers about Il travaille au bureau en portant des écouteurs, mais il est distrait.
How does en portant mean "while wearing"?
This is the gérondif form. You create it by taking the nous form of the present tense (nous portons), dropping the -ons, and adding -ant to get portant. Adding en in front translates to "while doing" or "by doing" something. Here, it shows two actions happening at the exact same time: working and wearing earphones.
Wait, doesn't porter mean "to carry"?
Why is there a des before écouteurs when the English translation just says "earphones"?
Why is it au bureau instead of à le bureau?
How would the end of the sentence change if it was "she is distracted"?
You would say mais elle est distraite. The adjective distrait must agree with the subject. Since il (he) is masculine, we use the base masculine form distrait (where the final 't' is silent). For elle (she), you add an -e to make it feminine, which means you will clearly pronounce the 't' at the end.
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