Questions & Answers about L'élève travaille avec le professeur.
Why don't avec and le combine into a single word like au?
In French, only the prepositions à (to/at) and de (of/from) combine with le and les to make new short words like au or aux. Other prepositions, like avec (with), just sit next to the article without combining. That's why it remains avec le professeur. Is l'élève masculine or feminine here?
We can't tell from this sentence alone! The word élève (pupil) can be either masculine or feminine. Because it starts with a vowel, both le and la shrink to l', hiding the gender of the student. Why is there an apostrophe in l'élève?
When the words le (masculine 'the') or la (feminine 'the') come right before a noun starting with a vowel, they drop their vowel and attach to the word with an apostrophe. This makes the words flow together smoothly when speaking! Does travaille mean 'works' or 'is working'?
It can mean both! French doesn't have a separate tense for 'is doing' something right now. Depending on the context, l'élève travaille translates to English as either 'the pupil works' or 'the pupil is working'. Learn L'élève travaille avec le professeur and more in French
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free