Chaque matin, je serre la main de mon collègue au travail.

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Breakdown of Chaque matin, je serre la main de mon collègue au travail.

• mon: my
• le travail: the work
• le matin: the morning

Questions & Answers about Chaque matin, je serre la main de mon collègue au travail.

Why is the verb phrase serrer la main used to mean “to shake hands” in French?

Serrer literally means “to squeeze,” “to grip,” or “to tighten.” When you combine it with la main, you get the idiomatic expression serrer la main—“to squeeze the hand”—which corresponds exactly to the English “to shake hands.”

Why do we say serrer la main de mon collègue instead of using the preposition à?

When you name the person with a full noun phrase, French typically uses de:
• serrer la main de quelqu’un
If you replace that noun phrase with an indirect‐object pronoun, you switch to à:
• Je lui serre la main.

Can I say je le serre la main to mean “I shake his hand”?

No. The correct pronoun structure is Je lui serre la main. Here, la main remains the direct object, and lui (him/her) is the indirect‐object pronoun.

Why is it mon collègue and not ma collègue?

You must match the gender of collègue to the person.
• If your colleague is male, you say mon collègue.
• If your colleague is female, you say ma collègue.
Note that collègue itself ends with the same spelling for masculine and feminine; it’s the possessive adjective that changes.