Breakdown of Nous parlons de la musculation pendant le dîner.
nous
we
pendant
during
parler
to talk
de
about
Questions & Answers about Nous parlons de la musculation pendant le dîner.
Why is it nous parlons and not just parlons like in English where we sometimes drop the subject?
In French, you almost always need to use a subject pronoun (je, tu, il/elle, nous, vous, ils/elles).
So:
- Nous parlons = We talk / We are talking
- Just parlons (without nous) is not a normal statement; it’s only used:
- in the imperative (a command): Parlons ! = Let’s talk!
For a normal sentence describing what happens, you must say Nous parlons.
Why is it parlons de and not parlons sur?
The verb parler changes preposition depending on meaning:
parler de quelque chose = to talk about something
parler à quelqu’un = to talk to someone
- Je parle à mon ami. = I’m talking to my friend.
Parler sur someone exists but means something like to badmouth someone, not simply “to talk about” them.
So for “talk about X”, the standard is parler de X, never parler sur X in this neutral sense.