Learn Hardcore French: Hier soir, j'ai mangé du poulet pour le dîner.

In French, hier means “yesterday” and soir means “evening.” Put together, hier soir literally translates to “yesterday evening,” which we naturally render as “last night.” You would not say hier ce soir (that would be “yesterday this evening,” which makes no sense).

Why is the sentence in the passé composé and not the passé simple?

French uses the passé composé for most spoken and informal past descriptions (“I ate,” “we saw,” etc.). The passé simple is primarily found in formal writing, literature, and historical accounts. Since Hier soir, j’ai mangé… is an everyday spoken (or casual written) statement, you use passé composé: present of avoir + past participle.

How is j’ai mangé formed, and why isn’t it je ai mangé?

J’ai is the contraction of je
- ai (the first‐person singular of avoir).
In French, you always contract e + a / e + o / e + u sounds: je ai → j’ai.
Mangé is the past participle of manger (an -er verb), so you write mangé with an é to distinguish it from the present tense mange.

Why does mangé not agree in gender or number with poulet? Shouldn’t it be mangé or mangés or mangée?

When a verb uses avoir as its auxiliary, the past participle only agrees in gender and number if the direct object precedes the verb. Here, du poulet follows mangé, so there is no agreement. You always write mangé regardless of the gender or number of what you ate, unless a preceding pronoun or object triggers agreement.

What is the role of du in du poulet, and could I say de poulet instead?

Du is the partitive article used before masculine singular nouns to express an unspecified quantity (“some chicken”). You cannot say de poulet there, because after verbs of consumption (unless negated), you keep the partitive. You could say:

J’ai mangé du poulet (“I ate some chicken”).
J’ai mangé deux poulets (“I ate two chickens,” specific count uses a number, not a partitive).

Could I instead say le poulet or un poulet?

le poulet would refer to a specific chicken you both know about (“I ate the chicken”).
un poulet means “one whole chicken” (“I ate a chicken”).
Here, you intend to say you ate some chicken meat, so du poulet is the correct partitive form.

Why is pour le dîner used? Could I say au dîner or pour dîner instead?

pour le dîner literally means “for dinner,” indicating purpose or occasion.
au dîner means “at dinner” (emphasizing the time or event). You could say:
“Hier soir j’ai mangé du poulet au dîner.”
pour dîner (without the article) is also possible in informal contexts:
“Hier soir, j’ai mangé du poulet pour dîner.”
All three are correct; nuances are slight:
• pour le dîner stresses what was prepared/eaten as the meal.
• au dîner focuses on the time slot named “dinner.”

What’s the difference between the verbs manger and dîner? Why not say j’ai dîné du poulet?

manger is transitive: it takes a direct object. You can eat something (manger du poulet).
dîner as a verb is intransitive in modern French: you “have dinner,” but you don’t “dîner something.” You say simply j’ai dîné (“I dined / had dinner”), without specifying the food after the verb. If you want to mention the food, switch back to manger or say j’ai dîné en mangeant du poulet, which is clumsy.

Can I move hier soir to a different position in the sentence? Why is it placed at the beginning here?

Time expressions like hier soir can go at the beginning or the end of the sentence:
• Hier soir, j’ai mangé du poulet pour le dîner.
• J’ai mangé du poulet pour le dîner hier soir.
They rarely split the auxiliary and past participle (i.e., you wouldn’t say j’ai hier soir mangé…). French prefers keeping compound verb elements together, so longer time phrases sit outside the verb group.

Is the comma after Hier soir mandatory?

No, the comma is optional. It’s often used in French to signal a fronted adverbial for clarity or rhythm. You can write either:
• Hier soir j’ai mangé du poulet…
• Hier soir, j’ai mangé du poulet…
Both are correct, though the comma adds a slight pause in writing or speech.