Learn French: Le train arrive en avance. - The train arrives early.

Le train arrive en avance.

The train arrives early.

Breakdown of Le train arrive en avance.

Elon.io is an online learning platform

We have an entire course teaching French grammar and vocabulary.

Start learning French now

Questions & Answers about Le train arrive en avance.

The current lesson is about venir (to come). Why does this sentence use arrive instead?

While venir means to come, French typically uses arriver (to arrive) when talking about scheduled transportation like trains, flights, or buses reaching their destination. You could say Le train vient (The train is coming), but arrive is much more natural for a schedule.

Why use en avance for early instead of tôt?

These two words for early have different uses! En avance means early in the sense of ahead of schedule or before the expected time (perfect for trains or appointments). Tôt simply means early in the day, like waking up early in the morning.

How do you pronounce arrive en? Do the words blend together?

Yes, they run together! Because arrive ends with a spoken v sound and en starts with a vowel, you naturally connect them when speaking. It sounds like a-ree-vahn. This linking makes your French flow much more smoothly.

If there were multiple trains, how would arrive change?

If the sentence was about multiple trains (Les trains), the verb would be spelled arrivent. However, the pronunciation is exactly the same as the singular arrive! The -ent ending on plural verbs is totally silent in French.