Learn Hardcore French: Chaque mercredi soir, notre groupe a une séance de français en ligne. - Every Wednesday evening, our group has an online French session.

Chaque mercredi soir – “each Wednesday evening,” neutral and clear.
Tous les mercredis soirs – “all (the) Wednesday evenings,” also “every Wednesday evening,” slightly longer but very common.
Le mercredi soir – “on Wednesday evenings” in general. It also implies a habitual action, but is a bit less explicit than chaque/tous les.

All three can often translate to “every Wednesday evening”, but:

Chaque focuses on repetition of each individual Wednesday.
Tous les focuses on the whole series of Wednesdays.
Le mercredi soir focuses on Wednesday evenings as a habitual time, without stressing “every single one” quite as strongly.

Why is there no article after chaque? Why not chaque le mercredi soir?

In French, chaque is a determiner that directly replaces an article. It is followed by a singular noun without any article:

✅ chaque mercredi soir
❌ chaque le mercredi soir

This is a general rule:

chaque jour – each day
chaque étudiant – each student
chaque semaine – each week

So you never combine chaque with le / la / les / un / une / des.

Why is it notre groupe and not nos groupe?

In French, possessive adjectives (mon / ma / mes, ton / ta / tes, son / sa / ses, notre / nos, votre / vos, leur / leurs) agree with the thing owned, not with the owner.

groupe is singular, so we use notre (our + singular noun):
- notre groupe – our group

We use nos only with plural nouns:

nos groupes – our groups
nos amis – our friends

So here:

✅ notre groupe (one group)
❌ nos groupe (mismatch: plural possessive + singular noun)

Why is the verb a and not avons in notre groupe a une séance?

The subject of the verb is notre groupe, which is third person singular (it = the group), not nous (we).

Conjugation of avoir (to have) in the present:

j’ai
tu as
il / elle / on a
nous avons
vous avez
ils / elles ont

Since notre groupe = il (he/it) in terms of grammar:

Notre groupe a une séance… – Our group has a session…

If you changed the subject to nous, you would then use avons:

Nous avons une séance de français en ligne. – We have an online French session.

Could we say Nous avons une séance de français en ligne instead of Notre groupe a…? Is there a difference?

Yes, that’s perfectly correct, and sometimes more natural in conversation.

Notre groupe a une séance de français en ligne.
- Focuses on the group as an entity.
- Sounds slightly more “external” or descriptive.
Nous avons une séance de français en ligne.
- Focuses on us / we.
- Feels more personal and is common when talking about your own schedule.

Both are grammatically fine; the choice is mostly about style and emphasis.

Why is it mercredi soir without an article? Could it also be le mercredi soir?

At the start of the sentence with chaque, you must drop the article:

✅ Chaque mercredi soir…
❌ Chaque le mercredi soir…

But if you remove chaque, then you can choose:

Le mercredi soir, notre groupe a…
- “On Wednesday evenings, our group has…”
- Implies a habitual action on Wednesdays in general.

So:

With chaque, no article: chaque mercredi soir
Without chaque, you can use le mercredi soir to express a general habit.

What exactly does séance mean here? Could we use cours or leçon instead?

In this context, une séance de français means something like “a French session / meeting / class time”. It’s fairly neutral and can refer to:

a class
a study session
a meeting focused on French

Other possibilities:

un cours de français – a French class / course (very common in school/university context)
une leçon de français – a French lesson (more focused on content, like a unit in a book)
une réunion de français – a meeting in which the topic is French (less common here)

You could absolutely say:

Chaque mercredi soir, notre groupe a un cours de français en ligne.

This would be understood as “We have an online French class every Wednesday evening.”

Why is it une séance de français and not une séance en français?

The preposition changes the meaning:

une séance de français
- A session of French: the subject or content of the session is the French language.
- Like saying “a French class / French session.”
une séance en français
- A session in French: the language used in the session is French, but the topic could be something else (history, science, etc.) taught in French.

In your sentence, the idea is that it is a French-language learning session, so de français is the normal choice.

What does en ligne mean exactly, and why not sur l’internet or something similar?

En ligne is a fixed expression meaning “online”.

une séance de français en ligne – an online French session
acheter en ligne – to buy online
travailler en ligne – to work online

You might see:

sur Internet – on the Internet
sur le web – on the web

But en ligne is the natural, short way to say “online” in modern French. You would not say sur ligne; that’s incorrect.

Can the time expression Chaque mercredi soir go at the end of the sentence instead of the beginning?

Yes. French time expressions are quite flexible in position. All of these are possible:

Chaque mercredi soir, notre groupe a une séance de français en ligne.
Notre groupe a une séance de français en ligne chaque mercredi soir.

Putting Chaque mercredi soir at the beginning:

Emphasizes the frequency / regularity.

Putting it at the end:

Sounds a bit more neutral and is very common in speech.

Both are correct; it’s a matter of emphasis and style.

Is the comma after Chaque mercredi soir required in French?

When a time expression like Chaque mercredi soir is placed at the beginning of the sentence, French normally uses a comma after it:

Chaque mercredi soir, notre groupe a…

This comma separates the introductory time phrase from the main clause. It’s standard and recommended punctuation, even though in informal writing some people may omit it. In careful or formal writing, you should keep the comma.

Why is français not capitalized here?

In French:

Nationalities and languages used as adjectives or common nouns are written with a lowercase initial:
- un cours de français – a French class
- elle parle français – she speaks French

They are only capitalized when they are proper nouns, usually referring to people:

les Français – the French (people)
un Français – a French man

So in une séance de français, français is the name of the language being studied, not a proper noun, so it stays lowercase.

How do you pronounce the tricky parts of Chaque mercredi soir, notre groupe a une séance de français en ligne?

Key points:

Chaque – sounds like “shak”
- ch = [ʃ], like English “sh”
- final -e is mute: /ʃak/
mercredi – roughly “mehr-kruh-dee”
- mer like “mair”
- cre like “kr”
  - neutral vowel
- stress is light and even in French.
soir – like “swar”, with a French r at the end.
notre – “notr”, short o, final -e almost silent: /nɔtʁ/.
groupe a – there is a liaison:
- groupe ends in -pe, usually “groop”
- before a, you often pronounce a little [p] sound linking them:
  - [gʁup‿a] – sounds like “groo-pa”.
séance – “say-ons”
- sé like “say”
- ance like “ons” with a nasal vowel.
français – approx. “fran-say”, with a nasal an:
- fran: nasal an (like “frohn” without fully pronouncing the n)
- çais like “say”.
en ligne – “an leen-y(e)”
- en: nasal again (through the nose)
- ligne: “leen-y(e)”; the gn is like “ny” in “canyon.”