Learn French: La délégation rencontre le secrétaire, émissaire du président. - The delegation meets the secretary, envoy of the president.

La délégation rencontre le secrétaire, émissaire du président.

The delegation meets the secretary, envoy of the president.

Breakdown of La délégation rencontre le secrétaire, émissaire du président.

of the / from the (masculine singular, with plural des)

him, it (masculine direct object pronoun)

Questions & Answers about La délégation rencontre le secrétaire, émissaire du président.

Why is there no article before émissaire?

This is a grammatical structure called nominal apposition. When a noun is placed immediately after another noun to state someone's title, role, or profession, French often drops the article. Instead of saying un émissaire du président, the phrase simply becomes émissaire du président.

Is it grammatically incorrect to include the article and say un émissaire?

It is not strictly wrong, but dropping the article is much more elegant and common in written or formal French. Including un or l' makes it sound like a descriptive afterthought, whereas omitting the article treats it as an official title.

How do we know if secrétaire refers to a man or a woman here?

The noun secrétaire is spelled exactly the same way for both genders. You have to look at the preceding article to know the person's gender. Because the sentence uses le secrétaire, we know this secretary is male. A female secretary would be la secrétaire.

Is rencontrer used for formal, scheduled meetings? I thought it meant to bump into someone.

Rencontrer is very versatile. While it can mean to bump into someone by chance, it is also the standard French verb for formal, planned meetings between officials, diplomats, or business groups.