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Nous dînons au restaurant ce soir.

Nous dînons au restaurant ce soir.
We are having dinner at the restaurant this evening.
From Lesson 269:Shops and eating out·French

Questions & Answers about Nous dînons au restaurant ce soir.

Why is the present tense dînons used if they are eating "this evening" (in the future)?
In French, just like in English, you can use the present tense to talk about a planned future event. You could also use the near future and say nous allons dîner (we are going to have dinner), but nous dînons is perfectly natural and very common for fixed plans happening soon.
The translation says "having dinner," but there is no word for "having" here. Why?
In English, we often use an action verb plus a noun, like "have dinner" or "eat dinner." In French, dîner is a fully functioning verb all on its own meaning "to eat dinner." So, nous dînons directly translates to "we dine," which naturally expresses "we are having dinner."
Why is it au restaurant instead of dans le restaurant?
In French, to say you are "at the" restaurant, you use the preposition à which combines with le to become au. While dans le restaurant means physically "inside the restaurant," au restaurant is the standard, natural way to express being at or going to a public establishment.
Why does "this evening" translate to ce soir instead of cet soir or cette soir?
The word for evening, soir, is masculine in French. Therefore, it takes the standard masculine demonstrative adjective ce (meaning "this" or "that"). You only use cet before masculine words starting with a vowel (like cet après-midi), and cette for feminine words.

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