Paul aime le ski.

Because the subject is Paul, which is he / il, a third-person singular subject.

The verb aimer changes like this in the present tense:

• j’aime = I like / love
• tu aimes = you like
• il / elle / on aime = he / she / one likes
• nous aimons = we like
• vous aimez = you like
• ils / elles aiment = they like

So Paul aime means Paul likes.

In French, when you talk about liking or loving an activity or thing in a general sense, you usually use a definite article such as le, la, les, or l’.

So French says:

• J’aime le chocolat. = I like chocolate.
• Elle aime la musique. = She likes music.
• Paul aime le ski. = Paul likes skiing / Paul likes ski.

English often leaves the article out, but French usually does not.

French often uses a noun where English uses an -ing form.

So le ski literally looks like the ski, but in context it means the activity of skiing.

Similar examples:

• faire du ski = to go skiing / to do skiing
• aimer le ski = to like skiing
• aimer la natation = to like swimming

So this is a normal French way to talk about activities.

It can mean either, depending on context.

• J’aime le café. usually means I like coffee.
• J’aime ma famille. often means I love my family.

In Paul aime le ski, the natural English meaning is Paul likes skiing.

So aimer is a broad verb, and context tells you whether like or love is better in English.

A simple approximate pronunciation is:

Pol em luh skee

A few notes:

• Paul sounds roughly like Pol
• aime sounds like em
• le is a quick luh sound, though the French vowel is more rounded than in English
• ski sounds very close to English ski

Also, in normal speech, Paul aime flows together smoothly.

French does not need an extra helping verb like do / does in ordinary positive statements.

English:

• Paul likes skiing.

French:

• Paul aime le ski.

French simply uses the main verb aime.

If you wanted emphasis in English, you might say Paul really does like skiing, but French would usually express that in another way, for example:

• Paul aime vraiment le ski.

It is a borrowed word, originally from another language, but it is fully used in modern French.

French uses:

• le ski = skiing / ski
• skier = to ski
• un ski = a ski

So even though it does not look traditionally French, it behaves like a normal French masculine noun here.

You can tell here because it uses le.

• le = masculine singular
• la = feminine singular
• les = plural

So le ski tells you that ski is masculine.

As with many French nouns, grammatical gender has to be learned along with the word:

• le ski
• la danse
• le sport

Yes. That would mean Paul loves skiing or Paul really loves skiing.

Compare:

• Paul aime le ski. = Paul likes skiing.
• Paul adore le ski. = Paul loves skiing / Paul adores skiing.

So adore is stronger than aime in this context.

You put ne ... pas around the verb:

• Paul n’aime pas le ski. = Paul does not like skiing.

Because aime starts with a vowel sound, ne becomes n’:

• n’aime pas

So the pattern is:

• positive: Paul aime le ski.
• negative: Paul n’aime pas le ski.

There are several common ways:

1. Est-ce que Paul aime le ski ?
   = Does Paul like skiing?

2. Paul aime le ski ?
   = Paul likes skiing?
   This is common in speech.

3. Paul aime-t-il le ski ?
   = Does Paul like skiing?
   This is more formal.

So the original sentence can easily become a question depending on style.