Breakdown of Après le tennis, ils mangent souvent un sandwich au fromage dans le parc.
Questions & Answers about Après le tennis, ils mangent souvent un sandwich au fromage dans le parc.
In French, activities like sports are usually treated as nouns and take an article.
- le tennis = the tennis (game/sport)
- Saying just après tennis (without an article) is not natural in French.
We often use the definite article (le, la, les) after time words like avant and après when talking about regular activities:
- Après le travail, je rentre à la maison.
- Avant le dîner, ils jouent.
So Après le tennis literally means After the tennis (session/match) and sounds natural and correct in French.
Yes, you can say both, but there’s a nuance:
Après le tennis, ils mangent…
Focuses on the time period after the tennis session. It sounds casual and is very common in speech.Après avoir joué au tennis, ils mangent…
Literally: After having played tennis, they eat…
This focuses more on the action of playing. It sounds a bit more explicit or formal.
Both are correct and mean almost the same thing in everyday use. The original sentence is slightly shorter and more natural in casual conversation.
The subject ils (they) is third person plural, so the verb must be conjugated in the plural form.
The verb manger (to eat), present tense:
- je mange
- tu manges
- il/elle/on mange
- nous mangeons
- vous mangez
- ils/elles mangent
So with ils, you must use mangent.
Pronunciation point:
- mange and mangent are pronounced the same way: /mɑ̃ʒ/
The final -ent in mangent is silent in normal speech.
You’ll only hear an extra sound if there’s a liaison (e.g. ils mangent_un sandwich → you may hear the t linking to the vowel of un).
In French, adverbs of frequency like souvent (often) usually go after the conjugated verb:
- Ils mangent souvent un sandwich.
Other possible positions:
Souvent, ils mangent un sandwich.
Puts more emphasis on often. This is also correct.Ils mangent un sandwich, souvent.
More colloquial; sounds like an afterthought or emphasis at the end.
What you normally do not say in neutral style is:
- Ils souvent mangent un sandwich. ❌ (this word order sounds wrong in standard French)
So the original Ils mangent souvent un sandwich… is the most natural, neutral order.
For many kinds of food in French, the structure [thing] + à + [ingredient] is used to describe the flavor or main ingredient:
- un sandwich au fromage = a cheese sandwich
- un sandwich au jambon = a ham sandwich
- une tarte aux pommes = an apple tart
- un jus d’orange = orange juice (here, de is usual)
With sandwich, French typically uses à → au (because à + le = au).
Un sandwich de fromage would sound strange or overly literal, as if the sandwich itself were made of cheese rather than containing cheese. The idiomatic, natural phrase is un sandwich au fromage.
Au is a contraction:
- à + le = au
So literally, un sandwich au fromage is un sandwich à le fromage, which we always contract to au.
The preposition à in food expressions often corresponds to English with or -flavoured:
- un sandwich au fromage → a sandwich with cheese / a cheese sandwich
- un café au lait → coffee with milk
- une glace à la vanille → vanilla ice cream
So here au shows the main ingredient or flavor.
Both dans le parc and au parc exist, but they don’t feel exactly the same:
- dans le parc = in the park → inside the park area
- au parc = at the park (literally to the park / at the park)
In many situations, they can both be used and understood. Subtle differences:
Ils mangent dans le parc.
Focus on being inside the park when they eat.Ils vont au parc.
Focus on going to the park.
If you want to clearly express inside the park at the moment of eating, dans le parc is perfect and clear.
In French, most common singular countable nouns need an article (un/une, le/la) or another determiner.
- dans le parc = in the park
- dans un parc = in a park (unspecified)
Saying dans parc (with no article) is not grammatical in standard French.
So you must choose a determiner:
- Use le parc if the park is known/specific.
- Use un parc if it’s any park, not specified.
In the given sentence, le parc suggests a park that the speakers already know or have in mind.
Ils is the third person plural subject pronoun:
- It can refer to:
- A group of men or boys.
- A mixed group (men + women).
- For a group of only women, you use elles.
So:
- Ils mangent… → They eat… (all male or mixed group)
- Elles mangent… → They eat… (all female group)
In many contexts, ils is the default plural when gender is unknown or mixed.
Yes, you can, and it’s very natural.
- on in spoken French often means we (rather than the strict “one/people in general”).
- Verb agreement changes:
- on mange (singular form)
- nous mangeons (plural form, more formal/written)
So:
Après le tennis, on mange souvent un sandwich au fromage dans le parc.
Sounds like: After tennis, we often eat a cheese sandwich in the park. (very common in everyday speech)Après le tennis, nous mangeons souvent…
More formal or written style.
Both are correct; on is just more colloquial and frequent in conversation.
It’s not absolutely required, but it is standard and recommended.
When a time expression is placed at the beginning of the sentence, French usually separates it with a comma:
- Le matin, je bois un café.
- Après le travail, il se repose.
- Après le tennis, ils mangent…
Without the comma, the sentence is still understandable, but the comma makes the structure clearer and matches normal written French conventions.