Paul voit le canard.

Because voit is the verb voir (to see) conjugated for il / elle / on in the present tense.

• voir = infinitive, to see
• je vois = I see
• tu vois = you see
• il voit = he sees

Since Paul is a third-person singular subject, French uses voit.

French does exactly what English does here: if you name the person, you usually do not also add a subject pronoun.

So:

• Paul voit le canard = Paul sees the duck

You would not normally say:

• Paul il voit le canard in standard basic sentence structure

In everyday spoken French, people sometimes repeat the subject with a pronoun for emphasis or casual speech, but the normal beginner pattern is simply Paul voit le canard.

Le is the masculine singular definite article, meaning the.

So:

• le canard = the duck

French usually uses articles more consistently than English, so nouns often need le, la, les, un, une, etc.

Here, canard is a masculine singular noun, so the correct article is le.

In French, every noun has a grammatical gender: masculine or feminine. Canard is simply a masculine noun, so it takes le in the singular:

• le canard = the duck

Unfortunately, gender often has to be learned with the noun. A good habit is to memorize nouns together with their article:

• le canard, not just canard

That way you learn both the word and its gender at the same time.

Yes, in this sentence the word order is very similar to English:

• Paul = subject
• voit = verb
• le canard = direct object

So it follows a basic Subject + Verb + Object pattern:

• Paul voit le canard
• Paul sees the duck

This makes it a very straightforward beginner sentence.

Voit is pronounced roughly like vwa.

A few important points:

• the oi in modern French usually sounds like wa
• the final t in voit is normally silent

So voit does not sound like the English word void.

A rough pronunciation guide for the whole sentence is:

• Paul voit le canard → Pol vwa luh ka-nar

This is only approximate, but it helps for a first try.

Because many final consonants in French are silent, and this is one of those cases.

In voit, the final t is normally not pronounced when the next word begins with a consonant:

• voit le → the t stays silent

So you say something like vwa luh.

French spelling often keeps letters that are useful for grammar and word families, even when they are not pronounced in everyday speech.

Not in this sentence. Le canard specifically means the duck.

If you wanted a duck, you would usually say:

• un canard = a duck

So:

• Paul voit le canard = Paul sees the duck
• Paul voit un canard = Paul sees a duck

That article changes the meaning.

Not in a normal statement like this.

The standard order is:

• Paul voit le canard

Putting le canard before the verb would require a different structure, usually with a pronoun or special emphasis. For example:

• Paul le voit = Paul sees it / Paul sees him

But as a basic noun object, le canard normally stays after the verb.

It is the direct object of the verb voit.

The subject is the person doing the action:

• Paul = the one who sees

The direct object is what is being seen:

• le canard = the thing being seen

So in Paul voit le canard, Paul performs the action and le canard receives it.

Yes, depending on context.

French present tense often covers both:

• Paul sees the duck
• Paul is seeing the duck

English often distinguishes simple present and present progressive, but French usually just uses the regular present tense for both unless there is a reason to emphasize that the action is in progress.

So voit here can be understood as either one, depending on the situation.