Paul étudie au lycée.

Étudie is the third-person singular present tense form of the verb étudier (to study).

So the pattern is:

• j’étudie = I study
• tu étudies = you study
• il/elle/on étudie = he/she/one studies

Because the subject is Paul, French uses the same verb form as il: Paul étudie.

Because Paul is already the subject of the sentence.

In French, you normally need a subject before a conjugated verb, but that subject can be:

• a pronoun: Il étudie
• a noun or name: Paul étudie

You would not normally say Paul il étudie in standard written French. That kind of doubling can happen in informal spoken French, but the normal standard sentence is simply Paul étudie.

Because à + le contracts to au in French.

So:

• à + le = au
• à + les = aux

That is why à le lycée becomes au lycée.

This is a standard contraction, not an optional one.

French usually uses an article with places like schools and institutions.

So French says:

• au lycée = at/to the high school
• à l’école = at/to school
• à l’université = at/to university

In English, we often drop the article in expressions like at school, but French usually keeps it.

Lycée refers to a French secondary school, usually the last stage before university. It is often translated as high school in learner-friendly English, but it is specifically part of the French school system.

So au lycée usually means in high school or at high school, depending on the context and the translation style.

Au lycée usually means at high school in the sense of attending or being at that institution.

Dans le lycée focuses more on being inside the building.

So:

• Paul étudie au lycée = Paul studies at high school / Paul is in high school
• Paul étudie dans le lycée = Paul studies inside the high school building

In this sentence, au lycée is the natural choice because it refers to the institution, not just the physical interior.

It can most naturally express a general present or habitual situation.

So it usually means something like:

• Paul studies at high school
• Paul is in high school

French present tense often covers both:

• what someone does generally
• what is happening now

Without more context, this sentence is usually understood as a general fact about Paul.

The é is an acute accent. It tells you the vowel is pronounced like ay in many English approximations, though not exactly the same.

So:

• étudie
• lycée

both begin or contain that clear é sound.

The accent is part of the spelling and should not be omitted in standard French writing.

A common learner-friendly approximation is:

• étudie ≈ ay-tu-dee

More precisely, the final -e is not pronounced as a separate syllable. The word is roughly ay-tu-dee with French vowel quality.

Also note:

• the s in Paul is silent
• lycée is roughly lee-say

Normally, no.

French does not capitalize common nouns like lycée unless they start a sentence or are part of a specific official name.

So:

• Paul étudie au lycée. ✅
• Paul étudie au Lycée. ❌ in normal usage

But in a proper name, capitalization may appear, such as in the official name of a school.

Yes, but it means something slightly different.

• Paul étudie au lycée focuses on studying / attending high school
• Paul est au lycée means Paul is at the high school

So est au lycée is more about location or presence, while étudie au lycée is more about what he does there or his status as a student.

In some contexts, étudier can mean to study in the sense of examining something carefully. It does not usually mean to learn in the broad everyday sense.

For to learn, French often uses:

• apprendre

In Paul étudie au lycée, étudie clearly means studies or is studying, not learns in the usual English sense.