Learn Hardcore French: Le soir, j'écris dans mon journal intime.

If you say les soirs, it sounds more like “on those specific evenings” and is less common for a simple routine.
Just soir on its own (without article) would be incorrect here; you normally need a determiner: le soir, ce soir, un soir, etc.

What is the difference between le soir and la soirée?

Both relate to “evening,” but they are used differently:

Le soir = the time of day, the evening in general (often used for routines).
- Le soir, je regarde la télé. – In the evenings, I watch TV.
La soirée = the duration or “evening event,” often something special or social.
- J’ai passé une bonne soirée. – I had a nice evening (out/event).

In your sentence, we are talking about a daily routine time, so Le soir is the right choice.

Why is there a comma after Le soir?

Le soir here is a time expression placed at the beginning of the sentence. In French, when you move a time phrase to the front for emphasis or style, you usually separate it with a comma:

Le soir, j’écris dans mon journal intime.
Le matin, je bois du café.

Without the comma, it wouldn’t be wrong in very informal writing, but standard written French uses the comma.

Why is it j’écris and not je écris?

In French, when je comes before a verb that starts with a vowel (or silent h), je usually becomes j’. This is called elision:

je écris → j’écris
je aime → j’aime
je habite → j’habite

So j’écris is simply the contracted form required by normal French pronunciation and spelling rules.

What is the verb form j’écris? How is écrire conjugated?

J’écris is the 1st person singular, present tense of écrire (to write). Écrire is irregular:

j’écris – I write
tu écris – you write (singular, informal)
il / elle / on écrit – he / she / one writes
nous écrivons – we write
vous écrivez – you write (plural or formal)
ils / elles écrivent – they write

Note that the stem changes (écri- / écriv-) and the endings are not the regular -re pattern.

In English I’d say “I write in my diary.” Why is French also using dans here: dans mon journal intime?

Dans literally means “in / inside”, and it’s the natural preposition when you talk about writing inside a physical object:

écrire dans un cahier – to write in a notebook
écrire dans un journal intime – to write in a diary

Using à here (j’écris à mon journal intime) would sound wrong; it would suggest writing to your diary like a person, which is not standard French. Dans is the normal, idiomatic choice.

Why is it mon journal intime and not ma journal intime?

In French, every noun has a grammatical gender. The word journal is masculine:

un journal – a diary / a newspaper (masculine)

Masculine singular nouns take mon (my), not ma:

mon journal – my diary / my newspaper
ma maison – my house (because maison is feminine)

So mon journal intime is correct; ma journal intime is grammatically incorrect.

What does journal intime mean exactly? How is it different from just journal?

Journal alone is ambiguous; it can mean:

a diary / journal – where you write your thoughts
a newspaper – un journal can be a newspaper

Adding intime clarifies the meaning: journal intime specifically means “personal diary, private journal”.
So mon journal intime = my diary (the private one where you write your feelings, thoughts, etc.).

Why is intime after journal and not before it?

Most French adjectives come after the noun:

un livre intéressant – an interesting book
un journal intime – a private/personal diary

Only certain common adjectives (often describing beauty, age, number, goodness, size, etc.) are usually placed before the noun: beau, grand, petit, vieux, jeune, etc.

Intime doesn’t belong to that special group, so it stays after the noun: journal intime.

Does j’écris here mean “I write” or “I am writing”? How does the French present tense work?

The French present tense can correspond to both English forms:

j’écris can mean:
- I write (habitually)
- I am writing (right now)

Context tells you which one is meant.
In this sentence, the time expression Le soir suggests a habit or routine, so we understand it as “In the evenings, I write in my diary.”

Could I say Tous les soirs, j’écris dans mon journal intime instead of Le soir, …?

Yes.

Le soir, j’écris… = In the evening / In the evenings, I write… (a general routine)
Tous les soirs, j’écris… = Every evening, I write… (emphasizes every single evening)

Both are correct. Tous les soirs is a bit stronger and more explicit about the frequency than Le soir.

Is there any liaison or special pronunciation in j’écris dans mon journal intime?

Key points for pronunciation:

j’écris: [ʒe.kʁi] – the s is silent.
j’écris dans: normally no liaison; pronounce dans as [dɑ̃], the final s is silent.
mon journal: [mɔ̃ ʒuʁ.nal] – journal has a clear r and a final [al] sound.
intime: [ɛ̃.tim] – nasal in [ɛ̃] at the start, then tim.

Spoken naturally, the sentence will sound roughly:
[lə swaʁ ʒe.kʁi dɑ̃ mɔ̃ ʒuʁ.nal ɛ̃.tim].

Could I drop dans and just say j’écris mon journal intime?

Not in the same meaning.

j’écris dans mon journal intime = I write in my diary (I write text inside it).
j’écris mon journal intime would be understood more like “I am writing my diary” as if you’re authoring or composing it as a work, which sounds odd in everyday speech.

To express the usual idea of keeping a diary, you need dans:
Le soir, j’écris dans mon journal intime.