Learn French: Il faut inspecter l'arrivage dès minuit. - One must inspect the shipment as early as midnight.

The preposition dès emphasizes that the action should happen 'as early as' or 'the very moment' midnight strikes. While à minuit simply means 'at midnight', dès highlights the promptness or the exact starting point of the inspection.

Is dès minuit the same as saying depuis minuit?

No. depuis means 'since' and is used for an action that started in the past and is still ongoing (for example, if you were already inspecting). Here, dès means 'starting from' or 'as early as', looking forward to a scheduled action that must begin at that time.

Why use l'arrivage instead of l'arrivée?

While both words relate to arriving, they have different uses. l'arrivée usually refers to a person's arrival or the abstract concept of arriving. l'arrivage is a specific vocabulary term for commerce and logistics, meaning a physical shipment or delivery of goods.

Why does Il faut translate to 'One must' rather than 'He must'?

Il faut is an impersonal expression, meaning the il (it) does not refer to a specific person. It states a general necessity or rule. If you wanted to specifically say 'He must inspect', you would use the verb devoir: Il doit inspecter.