Learn French: Dès son arrivée dans la halle, le patron a contrôlé l'arrivage. - Right from his arrival in the market hall, the boss checked the shipment.

The preposition dès emphasizes that the action happened immediately at that point in time, meaning right from or as soon as. If you used à son arrivée (upon his arrival), it would lose that strong sense of immediacy. You cannot use depuis (since) here because depuis is typically used to describe an action that is still ongoing, whereas a contrôlé is a completed action in the past.

Why does the sentence use son arrivée if arrivée is a feminine noun?

Even though arrivée is feminine, it starts with a vowel. In French, you must use the masculine possessive adjective son instead of the feminine sa before a vowel sound. This rule exists to make the pronunciation flow smoothly and to avoid the clunky vowel clash of saying sa arrivée.

Does contrôlé mean controlled in this context?

Not exactly. While contrôler can mean to control, it is a common false friend. In everyday French, it very often means to check, to inspect, or to verify. In this sentence, the boss is inspecting the newly arrived goods, not controlling them.

What is the difference between arrivée and arrivage, since they look so similar?