Je compose une chanson pour l’anniversaire de Marie.

I compose a song for Marie’s birthday.

Breakdown of Je compose une chanson pour l’anniversaire de Marie.

• je: I
• Marie: Marie
• pour: for
• de: of

Questions & Answers about Je compose une chanson pour l’anniversaire de Marie.

Why do we use the verb composer instead of écrire here?

composer means “to compose” in a musical sense—creating melody, harmony and lyrics—while écrire is more general (“to write”) and could apply to texts without music. Since you are creating a song, composer is the right choice.

Why is the verb in the present tense (je compose) rather than past or future?

The simple present in French can describe:

• An action happening right now (“I am composing”)
• A habitual or general action (“I compose songs regularly”)
• A near future plan in spoken language (“I’m composing [soon]”)
  If you wanted to stress a completed action in the past, you’d use passé composé (j’ai composé). For a future plan, you could say futur proche (je vais composer).

Why do we use pour in pour l’anniversaire de Marie? Could we use another preposition?

pour expresses purpose or intention (“for the occasion of”). Saying composer une chanson pour l’anniversaire means “compose a song for the birthday.” You cannot use à here to mean “for” in that sense—composer une chanson à l’anniversaire would sound odd and incorrect.

Why is it l’anniversaire and not le anniversaire?