D’après Paul, la réunion commence demain.

Here, d’après Paul means according to Paul.

It shows that Paul is the source of the information. So the sentence means that this is what Paul says or what Paul believes. It does not mean that Paul is organizing or starting the meeting.

Both d’après and selon can mean according to.

In this sentence, d’après Paul is very natural and common in everyday French. Selon Paul, la réunion commence demain would also be correct.

A small nuance:

• d’après often sounds a little more conversational
• selon can sound slightly more formal or neutral

In many contexts, they are interchangeable.

Because d’après is a fixed expression made from de + après.

When de comes before a word beginning with a vowel, French often shortens it:

• de + après → d’après

This is called elision.

French uses articles much more often than English.

So where English might say the meeting or sometimes just meeting in certain contexts, French usually needs an article:

• la réunion = the meeting

Since réunion is a feminine singular noun, the article is la.

You usually learn the gender together with the noun:

• la réunion

There is no perfect rule that lets you guess every noun’s gender, so it is best to memorize the article with the word.

Because réunion is feminine, you say:

• la réunion
• une réunion

Commence is the conjugated verb; commencer is the infinitive.

In this sentence, the subject is la réunion, which is third-person singular, so the verb must be conjugated:

• la réunion commence = the meeting starts / is starting

If you used commencer, it would be like saying the meeting to start, which is not grammatical here.

French often uses the present tense to talk about a scheduled or certain future event, just like English does.

So:

• La réunion commence demain = The meeting starts tomorrow

This is very natural in both languages when talking about timetables, plans, or fixed events.

You could also say:

• La réunion commencera demain

That is the simple future, and it is also correct. But the present tense sounds very natural here.

Yes, absolutely.

Both are correct:

• La réunion commence demain
• La réunion commencera demain

The difference is mainly style:

• commence demain uses the present for a planned future event
• commencera demain uses the explicit future tense

The first one often feels a bit more immediate or conversational.

Putting demain at the end is the most neutral and common word order here:

• D’après Paul, la réunion commence demain.

But French is flexible, and you could also say:

• D’après Paul, demain, la réunion commence.
• Demain, d’après Paul, la réunion commence.

Those versions are possible, but the original sentence sounds the most natural in ordinary speech.

The basic structure is:

• D’après Paul = introductory phrase
• la réunion = subject
• commence = verb
• demain = time expression

So the core sentence is:

• la réunion commence demain

And D’après Paul is added at the beginning to show the source of the information.

The comma separates the introductory phrase from the main clause:

• D’après Paul, = according to Paul
• la réunion commence demain. = the meeting starts tomorrow

This comma is very natural in writing because D’après Paul is extra framing information, not the main subject of the sentence.

In informal writing, people sometimes omit commas, but the comma is standard and helpful.

A careful pronunciation would be approximately:

da-pray Pol, la ray-oo-nyon koh-mahnss duh-man

A few useful notes:

• d’après sounds like da-pray
• Paul is pronounced roughly like Pol
• réunion has three clear parts: ré-u-nion
• commence ends with an s sound
• demain sounds roughly like duh-man with a nasal ending in French

If you want to sound more natural, pay special attention to French nasal vowels, especially in demain.

Yes.

Commencer can often be translated as either to start or to begin:

• La réunion commence demain = The meeting starts tomorrow
• La réunion commence demain = The meeting begins tomorrow

In most everyday contexts, there is no important difference.