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Il travaille mal aujourd'hui.

Il travaille mal aujourd'hui.
He is working badly today.
From Lesson 57:Why and because (pourquoi, parce que)·French

Breakdown of Il travaille mal aujourd'hui.

travailler
to work
aujourd'hui
today
mal
badly; pain

Questions & Answers about Il travaille mal aujourd'hui.

Does Il travaille mean "He works" or "He is working"?
It means both! French doesn't have a separate "is doing" tense (the present continuous). So Il travaille translates to "He works" or "He is working" depending on what makes sense in English.
Why is the word mal used here instead of mauvais?
Mal is an adverb meaning "badly" or "poorly." It is used to describe how an action (the verb) is done. Mauvais is an adjective meaning "bad," which is used to describe a person, place, or thing (a noun).
Where do words like mal go in a French sentence?
In French, short adverbs like mal (badly) and bien (well) are generally placed immediately after the conjugated verb. You say Il travaille mal, unlike in English where the word order can sometimes shift.
The word aujourd'hui looks complicated. Why does it have an apostrophe?
It historically means "on the day of today." The apostrophe is a leftover from old French where hui meant "this day." Even though it looks like several words glued together, just treat aujourd'hui as a single vocabulary word meaning "today."
How would I ask "Why is he working badly today?" using the grammar from this lesson?
You can add the word for "why" (pourquoi) and the standard question phrase est-ce que to the beginning of the sentence: Pourquoi est-ce qu'il travaille mal aujourd'hui ?

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