Breakdown of Le troisième jour, j'étais fatigué.
je
I
être
to be
fatigué
tired
le jour
the day
troisième
third
Questions & Answers about Le troisième jour, j'étais fatigué.
Why does this sentence use jour instead of journée?
We use jour when counting specific days as units of time or placing them in a sequence, like with ordinal numbers (le troisième jour). If we wanted to emphasize the continuous duration of the day or the events happening throughout it, we would use journée.
English uses "on" in "on the third day". Why is there no preposition like sur before Le troisième jour?
French does not use a preposition to say "on" a specific day or date. You simply use the definite article le followed by the day or number, just like you would say le lundi for "on Monday".
Why is j'étais in the imparfait tense rather than the passé composé (j'ai été)?
The imparfait is used here because feeling tired is a physical state or condition in the past, rather than a single, completed event. It sets the scene by describing how things were at that moment in time.
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