Breakdown of Je porte un jean bleu aujourd'hui.
Questions & Answers about Je porte un jean bleu aujourd'hui.
French does not normally use a continuous form like English am + -ing.
- English: I wear vs I am wearing
- French: both ideas are usually covered by the simple present je porte
So:
- Je porte un jean bleu aujourd’hui.
= I am wearing blue jeans today / I wear blue jeans today (depending on context)
The form je suis portant is wrong in this meaning.
If you really want to emphasize “right now, at this moment”, you can say:
- Je suis en train de porter…
but with clothing that sounds odd in practice; you would just say je porte.
Both can be used with clothes, but they’re not the same:
porter = to wear / to carry
- Je porte un jean bleu. → I am wearing blue jeans.
- Je porte un sac. → I am carrying a bag.
mettre = to put on
- Je mets un jean bleu. → I am putting on blue jeans (the action of dressing).
So:
- If the jeans are already on you: je porte.
- If you are in the act of putting them on: je mets.
French treats one pair of jeans as singular:
- un jean = one pair of jeans
- deux jeans = two pairs of jeans
So un jean bleu corresponds to English blue jeans or a pair of blue jeans.
If you have several pairs, you can say:
- Je porte souvent des jeans. → I often wear jeans (several pairs in general, as a habit).
The key point: French focuses on the item (one pair), so uses the singular; English focuses on the two legs, so uses the plural.
Jean (the clothing item) is masculine in French:
- un jean, le jean, mon jean
There is no reliable rule to guess the gender for every noun; you usually have to learn it with the word:
- un jean (m.)
- une chemise (f.)
- un pantalon (m.)
- une jupe (f.)
Because jean is masculine singular, the article and the adjective agree with it:
- un jean bleu (not une jean bleue).
In French, the default position for adjectives is after the noun:
- un livre intéressant
- une robe rouge
- un jean bleu
Some common adjectives come before the noun, especially those about:
- Beauty, Age, Number, Goodness, Size (often called BANGS)
- un beau jean (beautiful)
- un vieux jean (old)
- un bon jean (good)
- un grand jean (if that made sense…)
Color adjectives like bleu, rouge, vert, etc. almost always come after the noun:
- un jean bleu
- une chemise blanche
- des chaussures noires
You could combine them:
- un beau jean bleu → a nice pair of blue jeans.
Adjectives in French agree with the gender (masculine/feminine) and number (singular/plural) of the noun.
The noun here is jean:
- masculine
- singular
So bleu must be masculine singular:
- un jean bleu
Other forms of bleu:
- bleue = feminine singular:
- une jupe bleue (a blue skirt)
- bleus = masculine plural:
- des jeans bleus (blue jeans – several pairs)
- bleues = feminine plural:
- des jupes bleues (blue skirts)
The form always follows the noun, not the speaker.
Even if you are a woman, you still say Je porte un jean bleu, because jean is masculine.
Aujourd’hui is one word and means today.
Historically it comes from:
- au jour d’hui → “on the day of today”
Over time this fused into one word:
- aujourd’hui
The apostrophe is from d’ (from de), which lost its e before a word starting with a vowel (a normal French contraction).
Despite its history, in modern French you just treat aujourd’hui as a single adverb meaning today.
Yes. Adverbs of time like aujourd’hui are quite flexible in French.
All of these are correct, with slightly different emphasis:
Aujourd’hui, je porte un jean bleu.
(Today, I’m wearing blue jeans – emphasis on today.)Je porte un jean bleu aujourd’hui.
(Neutral order; very common.)
You usually keep aujourd’hui either at the beginning or the end; putting it in the middle can sound awkward:
- ❌ Je aujourd’hui porte un jean bleu. (incorrect)
Normally, no. In French, subject pronouns like je, tu, il, etc. are almost never dropped. You must say:
- Je porte un jean bleu aujourd’hui.
If you say:
- Porte un jean bleu aujourd’hui.
this sounds like an imperative (a command):
- (Tu) porte un jean bleu aujourd’hui. → “Wear blue jeans today.”
So omitting je changes the meaning completely.
An approximate phonetic transcription (standard French):
- Je porte un jean bleu aujourd’hui
→ /ʒə pɔʁt‿œ̃ ʒɑ̃ blø oʒuʁdɥi/
Key points:
- je → /ʒə/ (like “zhuh”)
- porte → /pɔʁt/ (the final t is normally silent, but before a vowel you can make a liaison: /pɔʁt‿œ̃/)
- un → nasal vowel /œ̃/
- jean → /ʒɑ̃/ (nasal an, not like the English name “Jean”)
- bleu → /blø/ (single vowel, not like English “blue”)
- aujourd’hui → /oʒuʁdɥi/ (“oh-zhoor-dwee”)
Spoken naturally, it flows as one chunk:
[ʒə pɔʁt‿œ̃ ʒɑ̃ blø oʒuʁdɥi].
You can say J’ai un jean bleu aujourd’hui, but the meaning changes:
Je porte un jean bleu aujourd’hui.
→ I am wearing blue jeans today.J’ai un jean bleu aujourd’hui.
Literally: I have a blue pair of jeans today.
This sounds more like:- I happen to own / have with me a blue pair of jeans today
or - I have a blue pair of jeans available today (not necessarily that I’m wearing it).
- I happen to own / have with me a blue pair of jeans today
To say what you are wearing, porter is the natural verb:
- Je porte un jean bleu aujourd’hui. ✅