Breakdown of Le travail m'oblige à partir.
partir
to leave / to depart
le travail
the job
obliger
to force, to oblige
Questions & Answers about Le travail m'oblige à partir.
Why is there a Le before travail when the English translation just says "Work"?
In French, you cannot usually leave a noun by itself. When talking about concepts or things in general, like "work" or "life", French uses the definite article (le, la, or les). So "work" in general is always le travail.
What does the m' in m'oblige stand for?
It stands for me (me). Because the verb oblige starts with a vowel sound, me drops its e and attaches directly to the verb to make it easier to say. Notice that in French, object pronouns like me go right before the verb.
Why do we need the word à before partir?
In French, many verbs need a specific preposition (small linking word) to connect them to another verb. The verb obliger (to force/oblige) always needs à before an infinitive verb (the basic "to" form of a verb). So, "to force to leave" is built as obliger à partir.
The lesson is about il faut (it is necessary / one must). How is this sentence different?
Il faut is an impersonal expression, meaning it doesn't have a specific person or thing doing the action (the il just means "it", like in "it is raining"). In this sentence, we have a specific thing creating the obligation: Le travail (Work). Because a specific subject is doing the forcing, we use the regular verb obliger instead of il faut, and remember that unlike il faut, obliger requires adding à before the next verb.
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