Je commence mon nouveau travail aujourd’hui, et je porte une cravate pour le travail.

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Breakdown of Je commence mon nouveau travail aujourd’hui, et je porte une cravate pour le travail.

• mon: my
• et: and
• le travail: the work
• pour: for
• porter: to wear
• commencer: to start
• nouveau: new
• le travail: the job
• aujourd’hui: today
• une cravate: a tie

Questions & Answers about Je commence mon nouveau travail aujourd’hui, et je porte une cravate pour le travail.

Why do we use commence instead of commences?

In French, commence is the correct present-tense form for je (first-person singular). If you added an -s to make commences, that would be the second-person singular form (for tu).

Why do we say mon nouveau travail and not mon travail nouveau?

Adjectives in French often come after the noun, but some adjectives commonly precede the noun—nouveau (new) being one of them. So it’s more natural to say mon nouveau travail in everyday French. You could say mon travail nouveau, but that would sound more formal or unusual in modern usage.

Why does aujourd’hui have an apostrophe?

Aujourd’hui literally comes from the older expression au jour d’hui (“on the day of today”), and over time it has merged into one word with an apostrophe. It’s just the standard spelling now and doesn’t change form.

Why do we repeat travail in je porte une cravate pour le travail?

In French, it’s common to be explicit. Using pour le travail clarifies that you’re wearing a tie because your job requires or expects it. You could say je porte une cravate au travail (I wear a tie at work), but pour le travail emphasizes the purpose (for my job).

Could we say je mets instead of je porte in this context?

Je mets (I put on) emphasizes the action of putting something on at a specific moment. Je porte (I wear) emphasizes that you have it on. If you want to stress that you are currently wearing a tie, je porte is better; if you want to emphasize the act of putting the tie on, je mets would work.

Is travail ever feminine, or does it have a feminine form?

No, travail is a masculine noun in French, so it always takes le (le travail) or un (un travail). It doesn’t change to a feminine form in standard usage.

Why is mon used instead of ma even though travail starts with a consonant?

Because travail is masculine, you need the masculine possessive adjective mon (my). Ma is used before feminine nouns (like ma voiture for my car). The fact that travail begins with a consonant doesn’t affect which possessive adjective you choose; the gender of the noun is what matters.