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Je parle avec le boulanger.

Je parle avec le boulanger.
I am talking with the baker.
From Lesson 45:Partitive articles (du, de la, de l')·French

Breakdown of Je parle avec le boulanger.

avec
with
parler
to speak
le boulanger
the baker

Questions & Answers about Je parle avec le boulanger.

The translation says "I am talking," so why is there no French word for "am" here?
In French, the present tense covers both "I talk" and "I am talking." Je parle translates to both depending on the context. French doesn't have a direct equivalent to the English "am doing something" structure!
We are learning about the word du in this lesson. Could I say Je parle avec du boulanger?
No, because du (when used as a partitive article) means "some" for things you can't easily count, like du pain (some bread). You wouldn't say "I am talking with some baker." Because you are talking to a specific person—the baker—you just use the definite article le.
Does avec le ever mash together into one word?
No, it doesn't! You might be thinking of how de + le combines into du. In French, only the prepositions de (of/from) and à (at/to) contract when they are right next to le or les. Avec (with) just stays as a separate word.
How would the sentence change if the baker were a woman?
You would say Je parle avec la boulangère. Many professions in French change their ending depending on the person's gender. For professions ending in -er, the feminine form usually changes to -ère.

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