Breakdown of Le professeur explique l'expression dans le texte.
Questions & Answers about Le professeur explique l'expression dans le texte.
In French, you normally need an article (like le, la, un, une) in front of a noun, even for professions.
- Le professeur = the teacher / professor
- Professeur alone would sound like a title or a form of address (e.g. calling someone: Professeur !), not a normal subject in a sentence.
So as the grammatical subject, it needs le:
Le professeur explique… = The teacher explains…
Historically, professeur is a masculine noun, so the default is:
- le professeur (the teacher / professor)
To specify a woman, modern French increasingly uses:
- une professeure / la professeure (feminine form)
- or more informally: la prof
However, in many contexts you’ll still see le professeur used even for a female teacher, especially in traditional or formal writing. For a learner, it’s safe to treat professeur as grammatically masculine unless otherwise specified.
Explique is the present tense, 3rd person singular of the verb expliquer (to explain):
- j’explique – I explain
- tu expliques – you explain (singular, informal)
- il / elle / on explique – he / she / one explains
- nous expliquons – we explain
- vous expliquez – you explain (plural / formal)
- ils / elles expliquent – they explain
The subject here is le professeur (he / she), so we need il/elle explique → explique.
Expression is a feminine noun, so its basic form is:
- la expression
But French avoids having a vowel at the end of the article + a vowel at the beginning of the noun. So la becomes l’ in front of a vowel sound. This is called elision.
- la
- expression → l’expression
You do the same with le:
- le ami → l’ami
You generally have to learn the gender with each noun:
- une expression (feminine)
- le texte (masculine)
There are some patterns (many nouns ending in -tion are feminine: nation, conversation, expression), but there are many exceptions. So it’s good habit to memorize words with their article:
- une expression
- un texte
The definite article l’ (from la) is used because we’re talking about a specific, known expression, the one that appears in the text.
- l’expression dans le texte = the expression in the text (a particular one)
- une expression dans le texte = an expression in the text (one, but not specified which)
Given the context, it’s clear which expression is meant, so French uses the definite article, just like English does here.
- expliquer = to explain (make something clear, give a clarification)
- Le professeur explique l’expression.
- dire = to say / tell (just report words)
- Le professeur dit l’expression. = The teacher says the expression.
- enseigner = to teach (a subject, a skill)
- Le professeur enseigne le français. = The teacher teaches French.
So expliquer focuses on making the meaning clear, which fits an expression in a text.
French normally uses Subject – Verb – Object, like English:
- Subject: Le professeur
- Verb: explique
- Direct object: l’expression
So: Le professeur explique l’expression… → The teacher explains the expression…
Other word orders are possible for emphasis in more advanced or literary French, but the default is the same basic SVO order as in English.
The preposition dans is used for in / inside something concrete or specific:
- dans le texte = in the text (inside that specific text)
Comparisons:
- en texte – not idiomatic in this sense
- du texte = of (some) text / from the text
- une expression du texte = an expression from the text
- dans le texte = located inside the text
Here we want the idea that the expression appears in that text, so dans le texte is the natural choice.
You can say:
- Le professeur explique l’expression du texte.
This means roughly The teacher explains the expression from the text.
The nuance:
- l’expression dans le texte = the expression that is in the text (locating it)
- l’expression du texte = the expression belonging to / coming from the text (more like “of the text”)
Both are understandable. Dans le texte is a bit more neutral and frequent when you’re just talking about something appearing inside a text.
Yes, texte is very close to English text:
- a written passage
- a short text in a textbook
- the wording of a law, a speech, etc.
It’s a masculine noun:
- un texte
- le texte
So we say dans le texte = in the text.
No agreement is needed in this sentence:
- explique is a present-tense verb form that doesn’t change with the gender of the object.
- l’expression is a direct object, but verbs in the simple present don’t change their form to agree with the object in French.
Agreement issues like that mainly appear with past participles in certain constructions, which is not the case here.
Approximate pronunciation (standard French):
- Le → /lə/
- professeur → /pʁɔ.fɛ.sœʁ/
- explique → /ɛk.splik/
- l’expression → /lɛk.spʁɛ.sjɔ̃/
- dans → /dɑ̃/ (nasal vowel, the n is not fully pronounced)
- le → /lə/
- texte → /tɛkst/ (final e silent, x = /ks/)
Main points:
- The x in explique and expression is /ks/.
- dans has a nasal vowel: /dɑ̃/.
- No required liaison that changes the sounds here (e.g. professeur already ends in a pronounced ʁ, so you just link into explique smoothly).
Yes, une expression can mean:
- an expression / phrase / set phrase
- an idiom (e.g. une expression idiomatique)
But be careful:
- un mot = a single word
- une phrase = a sentence (not “phrase” in the English sense)
So if it’s a small group of words or an idiomatic expression in a text, une expression is appropriate, as in this sentence.