Learn Hardcore French: La musicienne joue du violon sur la scène. - The musician plays the violin on the stage.

You usually add -e, and often double the final consonant (musicien → musicienne) to form the feminine. If the gender is unknown or generic, the masculine (un musicien) is usually used by default.

Why do we need the article la before musicienne?

In French, a common noun used as the subject of a sentence almost always needs some kind of determiner (article, demonstrative, etc.): la musicienne, une musicienne, cette musicienne, etc.

Here la musicienne means the musician, implying a specific person the listener can identify (from context or previous mention).

Compare:

Je suis musicienne. – “I am a musician.” (no article after être with professions)
La musicienne joue du violon. – “The (female) musician plays the violin.” (subject; needs an article)

Why do we say joue du violon and not joue le violon or joue un violon?

With musical instruments, French normally uses jouer de + definite article + instrument:

jouer du violon
jouer du piano
jouer de la guitare

So jouer du violon is the standard way to say to play the violin (as an instrument).

Jouer le violon is generally wrong in modern French, and jouer un violon would sound like you’re focusing on “a particular violin” as an object, which is unusual unless you have a very specific context.

What exactly does du mean in joue du violon?

Du is the contraction of de + le:

de + le violon → du violon

Literally it’s “plays of the violin,” but in English we just say “plays violin” or “plays the violin.”

Here du is more grammatical than truly meaningful: it’s required by the pattern jouer de + instrument and doesn’t translate directly into a separate word in English.

Why is it sur la scène and not dans la scène or à la scène?

sur = on (the surface of) → sur la scène = on (the) stage (physically standing on it)
dans = in, inside → dans la scène would mean inside the scene (as in a film or play scene), not physically on a theatre stage
à = at, to, in in many cases, but à la scène is not used to mean “on stage”

So for the physical location where you stand and perform, French uses sur la scène.

In English we say “on stage” without the. Why does French say sur la scène with la?

French generally doesn’t drop the definite article the way English does; many fixed expressions that are bare in English take le / la / les in French:

à l’école – at school
au cinéma – at the movies
sur la scène – on (the) stage

You may also see sur scène (without the article) in modern French, especially in headlines or casual speech, but sur la scène is the fully explicit form and very natural.

Can I change the word order to Sur la scène, la musicienne joue du violon?

Yes, that is perfectly correct.

French often places a location expression at the beginning of the sentence:

Sur la scène, la musicienne joue du violon.

The meaning is the same; starting with Sur la scène just puts slightly more emphasis on the place where the action happens, like English “On the stage, the musician plays the violin.”

Why is it la scène but du violon? How do I know their genders?

la scène – scène is feminine
le violon → du violon – violon is masculine

Grammatical gender in French is mostly arbitrary and must be learned with each noun. Some endings give hints:

Many nouns in -e are feminine (la scène, la table), but there are exceptions (le problème).
Many musical instruments ending in a consonant are masculine (le violon, le piano, le saxophone), but not all (la trompette, la clarinette).

Always learn new nouns together with their article: la scène, le violon.

Could I say La musicienne joue de son violon instead of joue du violon?

You could, but the meaning is a bit different.

jouer du violon = play the violin (as an instrument, in general); this is the normal, neutral expression.
jouer de son violon = play her violin, emphasizing the particular instrument she owns or is using.

You would usually only say jouer de son violon if you specifically care about that violin (for example, contrasting it with another instrument or violin).

How do you pronounce La musicienne joue du violon sur la scène?

In standard French (approximate IPA):

La musicienne joue du violon sur la scène
/la my.zi.sjɛn ʒu dy vjɔ.lɔ̃ syʁ la sɛn/

Key points:

la = /la/
musicienne = /my.zi.sjɛn/ (the -enne sounds like -enn)
joue = /ʒu/ (like “zhoo”)
du = /dy/ (u like in German über)
violon = /vjɔ.lɔ̃/ (final -on is a nasal vowel, not pronounced “on”)
sur = /syʁ/
scène = /sɛn/ (short open è sound, like “sen”)