Breakdown of Le stagiaire espère trouver un travail à l'université plus tard.
Questions & Answers about Le stagiaire espère trouver un travail à l'université plus tard.
Stagiaire is a general word for someone doing a stage (a period of practical training).
- In many contexts, le stagiaire = the intern (e.g. in an office, lab, company).
- It can also mean trainee or apprentice, depending on the context.
So le stagiaire is the person currently doing practical training, often short-term and supervised.
French nouns have grammatical gender:
- le stagiaire = a male intern / a generically male form.
- la stagiaire = a female intern.
If the intern is a woman, you would say La stagiaire espère trouver un travail…
The form stagiaire itself does not change; only the article (le / la) changes.
The choice between le and un depends on what the speaker means:
- le stagiaire = the intern (a specific intern already known to both speaker and listener).
- un stagiaire = an intern (not specifically identified; just some intern).
In this sentence, the speaker is probably talking about a particular intern they have in mind, so le is used.
French normally uses the present tense of verbs like espérer (to hope) to talk about hopes, even if those hopes concern the future.
- Le stagiaire espère trouver… = The intern hopes to find… (in the future).
The future idea is already contained in the infinitive trouver and in plus tard (“later”), so you don’t need a future tense on espère.
In French, espérer is followed directly by an infinitive with no preposition:
- espérer faire quelque chose
- espérer trouver un travail
Structures like espérer de + infinitif or espérer à + infinitif are incorrect in standard French.
So you say espère trouver, not espère de trouver.
Yes. You have two common structures:
espérer + infinitif
- Le stagiaire espère trouver un travail.
espérer que + phrase
- Le stagiaire espère qu’il va trouver un travail.
Both are correct.
The version with an infinitive (espérer + infinitif) is slightly shorter and more direct; the espérer que version introduces a full clause with a subject and a verb.
They focus on different ideas:
- trouver un travail = to find a job. The action is getting a job.
- travailler = to work. The action is doing work (already having a job or working in general).
In this sentence, the intern is hoping to get a job later, so trouver un travail is the natural choice.
un travail and du travail are not used in the same way:
- un travail = a job / a position (countable, specific job).
- du travail = (some) work (uncountable, work in general).
Here, the intern hopes to get a job (a position at the university), so un travail is appropriate.
If you said du travail à l’université, it would sound more like “some work/tasks at the university”, not necessarily a formal job.
No. In French, you normally need an article before a singular countable noun:
- un travail, le travail, ce travail, etc.
Saying trouver travail without an article is incorrect in standard French.
If you want something closer to “find work” (uncountable), you would say trouver du travail.
Both à and dans can relate to places, but they are used differently:
- à l’université = at the university (as an institution / place of work or study).
- dans l’université = inside the university building(s) (physical interior).
For working at a university (as an employer or institution), French uses à l’université, not dans l’université.
Because of elision.
- The noun université is feminine: la université in theory.
- But la ends in a vowel and université starts with a vowel, so in speech they would clash.
French solves this by using l’ before words that start with a vowel or silent h:
- à la
- université → à l’université
The same happens with le → l’ (e.g. le ami → l’ami).
Plus tard (later) is movable, within limits. All of these are acceptable:
- Le stagiaire espère trouver un travail à l’université plus tard.
- Le stagiaire espère, plus tard, trouver un travail à l’université.
- Plus tard, le stagiaire espère trouver un travail à l’université.
Putting plus tard at the end (as in the original sentence) is very common in spoken and written French.
Moving it to the beginning adds a slight emphasis on the time.
This is a regular spelling pattern for verbs like espérer, préférer, etc.
- Infinitive: espérer (with é)
- Je espère, tu espères, il/elle espère, ils/elles espèrent (with è)
- Nous espérons, vous espérez (with é again)
The change é → è in some forms reflects how the vowel is pronounced when the syllable is closed (followed by a pronounced consonant). The accent changes to keep the pronunciation regular.
Espérer is a regular -er verb with a spelling change (é → è). In the present tense:
- j’espère
- tu espères
- il / elle / on espère
- nous espérons
- vous espérez
- ils / elles espèrent
For il / elle / on, all regular -er verbs end in -e in the present tense, so il espère = he hopes, elle espère = she hopes, le stagiaire espère = the intern hopes.
Not in the same sense.
- un travail universitaire usually means academic work or a university-level assignment (e.g. a paper, project, thesis).
- un travail à l’université means a job at the university (employed there).
So un travail universitaire describes the nature of the work, while un travail à l’université indicates the place / employer. For a job at a university, you want à l’université.