Learn French: Le chef demande si nous engageons ce profil. - The boss asks if we are hiring this profile.

Le chef demande si nous engageons ce profil.

The boss asks if we are hiring this profile.

Breakdown of Le chef demande si nous engageons ce profil.

nous

we / us (object pronoun)

this (before a noun)

le chef

the boss / the manager

him, it (masculine direct object pronoun)

Questions & Answers about Le chef demande si nous engageons ce profil.

Why is si used in this sentence instead of a question phrase like est-ce que?

Because this is an indirect yes/no question. If the boss asked this directly, he would say "Est-ce que nous engageons ce profil ?" When you report a yes/no question to someone else, you drop the est-ce que (or the inversion) and use si (if/whether) to connect the two parts of the sentence.

Why is there an 'e' before the 'o' in engageons?

For French verbs ending in -ger like engager (to hire), you must keep the 'e' before endings that start with 'o' or 'a'. This forces the 'g' to keep its soft sound. Without that e, the 'g' would sound hard like the 'g' in "go".

Does ce profil just mean a social media profile here?

Not exactly. In French business and HR contexts, un profil is frequently used to refer to a "candidate" or an "applicant" who has a specific set of skills. The boss is essentially asking if the company is going to hire this applicant.

Why does engageons stay in the present tense here?

When the reporting verb (here, demande) is in the present tense, the verb in the reported speech (here, engageons) does not change its tense. It stays exactly as it was in the original direct question. You only need to shift tenses backward if the reporting verb is in the past.