Sans expérience, trouver un premier emploi pour remplir son CV peut prendre du temps.

Without experience, finding a first job to fill your résumé can take time.

Breakdown of Sans expérience, trouver un premier emploi pour remplir son CV peut prendre du temps.

• prendre: to take
• du: some
• pour: in order to
• l'expérience: the experience
• sans: without
• pouvoir: can
• trouver: to find
• le temps: the time
• premier: first
• remplir: to fill
• l'emploi: the job
• le CV: the résumé
• son: one's

Questions & Answers about Sans expérience, trouver un premier emploi pour remplir son CV peut prendre du temps.

Why is there no article before expérience? Why sans expérience and not sans une expérience or sans de l’expérience?

After sans, French often drops the article when you mean something in a general or indefinite way.

• sans expérience = without (any) experience
  General idea, no specific experience in mind.

You could say:

• sans une expérience préalable = without a prior experience (a specific, countable experience)
• sans l’expérience nécessaire = without the necessary experience (definite, specific)

In this sentence, we’re talking about experience in general, so sans expérience is the natural choice.

Why is trouver in the infinitive, and how does this part of the sentence work grammatically?

The whole group trouver un premier emploi pour remplir son CV is an infinitive clause that functions as the subject of the verb peut prendre.

French structure:

• Trouver un premier emploi pour remplir son CV peut prendre du temps.

English equivalent:

• Finding a first job to fill out one’s CV can take time.

So grammatically:

• Subject: trouver un premier emploi pour remplir son CV
• Verb: peut prendre
• Complement: du temps

Why do we say un premier emploi instead of le premier emploi?

Un premier emploi means a first job in a non-specific, general sense: any first job.

• un premier emploi = some first job, not identified or unique
• le premier emploi would sound like the particular first job of a specific person already known in the context.

Here, we’re speaking generally (about anyone’s first job), so un premier emploi is correct.

What exactly does pour remplir son CV mean? Is pour necessary?

Pour + infinitive expresses purpose: in order to / to.

• pour remplir son CV = in order to fill (build up) one’s CV

You could rephrase the whole idea as:

• Finding a first job *in order to build up one’s CV can take time.*

In this kind of purpose clause, pour is standard and natural.

Sometimes French can omit pour with certain verbs or in very informal style, but here pour remplir son CV is the normal, idiomatic form.

Why is it son CV when we’re talking about people in general? Who does son refer to?

In French, when you talk about people in general, you often still use a 3rd-person possessive (his/her/one’s):

• son CV here means one’s CV (any person’s CV).

There is no neutral one’s form in French, so:

• son can mean his, her, or one’s, depending on context.
• It agrees with the grammatical gender of the noun (CV, masculine), not with the person’s gender.

So son CV is the generic “someone’s CV / your CV / one’s CV” in this general statement.

Is CV a French word? What gender is it, and how is it pronounced?

CV in French is an abbreviation of Latin curriculum vitæ, and it’s fully integrated into French.

• Gender: masculine → un CV
• Pronunciation: typically [se ve] (say “say-vay”)
• Spelling: often written CV without dots in modern usage.

It means the same as in English: a résumé or curriculum vitae listing your education and work experience.

Why is it peut prendre du temps and not just prend du temps?

Peut (from pouvoir) adds the idea of possibility, like can in English.

• prend du temps = takes time (more definite, usual)
• peut prendre du temps = can take time / may take time (it is likely or possible, not guaranteed every time)

The sentence wants to say that this can be a slow process, not that it always is, so peut prendre du temps is more accurate and natural.

What does du temps mean exactly? Why du and not de le or something else?

Du is the contracted form of de + le, but in this expression it works as a partitive article, indicating an unspecified quantity:

• du temps = some time / time (in general, an amount of time)

You don’t need beaucoup de temps (a lot of time) or un certain temps (a certain amount of time).
Du temps is the neutral way to say it takes time without specifying how much.

Why does the sentence start with Sans expérience, followed by a comma? Could it go elsewhere?

Sans expérience is a prepositional phrase giving a condition or circumstance: without experience.

Putting it at the beginning with a comma:

• Sans expérience, trouver un premier emploi… peut prendre du temps.

This emphasizes the condition without experience.

You could also say:

• Trouver un premier emploi, sans expérience, peut prendre du temps. (less common style)
• Or expand: Quand on est sans expérience, trouver un premier emploi… peut prendre du temps.

But the original fronted Sans expérience, is short, natural, and stylistically good.

Could we say Sans expérience, ça peut prendre du temps de trouver un premier emploi instead? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say:

• Sans expérience, ça peut prendre du temps de trouver un premier emploi.

Differences:

• Original: Trouver un premier emploi… peut prendre du temps.
  → The infinitive clause is the grammatical subject. More formal/neutral.

• Alternative: Ça peut prendre du temps de trouver un premier emploi.
  → Ça is a dummy subject (like it in English: It can take time to find…).
  This sounds slightly more conversational.

Both are correct; the meaning is the same. The original is just a bit more structured and written-sounding.