Learn Hardcore French: Après la consultation, Marie se sent mieux. - After the consultation, Marie feels better.

Après la consultation = After the consultation / appointment (natural French)
Après consultation (without article) is possible only in very formal or technical language (e.g. legal, administrative, medical reports), not in everyday speech.

So for standard, everyday French, you say Après la consultation.

What exactly does consultation mean here? Is it specifically a medical visit?

In this context, la consultation usually means a doctor’s appointment / medical consultation.

French consultation can be:

a medical consultation: visiting a doctor, psychologist, etc.
more broadly, a professional consultation (lawyer, specialist…), but the default everyday reading with se sent mieux is medical.

If you wanted to be more explicit, you could say:

Après la consultation médicale, Marie se sent mieux.
But it’s not necessary; la consultation alone is often enough in context.

Why is it Marie se sent mieux and not Marie sent mieux?

Because se sentir is a reflexive verb that means “to feel (a certain way)” in terms of health, mood, or general state.

se sentir = to feel (well, bad, tired, better, etc.)
- Je me sens bien. – I feel good.
- Elle se sent mieux. – She feels better.

Without se, the verb sentir usually means:

to smell (perceive an odor):
- Je sens la fumée. – I smell smoke.
or to feel in a more physical/sensory sense:
- Je sens quelque chose sous ma main. – I feel something under my hand.

So for “to feel better (health / mood)”, you need the reflexive form se sentir, hence Marie se sent mieux.

How is se sentir conjugated here, and why is it se sent?

The basic present-tense conjugation of se sentir is:

je me sens
tu te sens
il / elle / on se sent
nous nous sentons
vous vous sentez
ils / elles se sentent

Here the subject is Marie (3rd person singular feminine), so you use:

reflexive pronoun se
verb form sent

→ Marie se sent mieux.

Marie se sent = “Marie feels”.

Why is it mieux and not meilleur?

Mieux and meilleur both translate as “better” in English, but they are used differently:

mieux = “better” as an adverb (describes how someone feels/does something)
meilleur / meilleure = “better” as an adjective (describes a noun)

With se sentir, you normally use an adverb, because you are describing how someone feels:

Elle se sent mieux. – She feels better.
Je me sens bien / mal / mieux.

Examples with meilleur(e) (adjective):

C’est un meilleur médicament. – It’s a better medicine.
Son état est meilleur. – Her condition is better.

So here mieux (adverb) is the correct choice with se sentir.

Could you also say Marie va mieux instead of Marie se sent mieux?

Yes, both are correct, but there’s a small nuance:

Marie se sent mieux.
Focuses on how she feels subjectively (“she feels better” from her own perception).
Marie va mieux.
Literally “Marie is going better”: often used about health improving, what a doctor or observer might say. It can sound slightly more objective or medical, but in everyday speech people use both quite freely.

In many contexts, they are almost interchangeable.

Why is the verb in the present tense (se sent) if we say “after the consultation”? In English we’d probably say “she felt better”.

French can use the present tense to describe a situation that is true at the time you’re talking about, even if it started in the past.

So:

Après la consultation, Marie se sent mieux.
= After the consultation (which has just happened, or is part of the story), she now feels better.

If you’re telling a completed past story, you can also use the past:

Après la consultation, Marie s’est sentie mieux.
= After the consultation, Marie felt better.

But the present is very common in:

summaries (e.g., of a story)
comments on a recent event
or when the focus is on her current state rather than on storytelling.

What would the sentence look like in the past tense?

In the passé composé (compound past), se sentir conjugates with être:

Après la consultation, Marie s’est sentie mieux.

Details:

s’ = reflexive pronoun (for se before a vowel sound, here est)
est = 3rd person singular of être
sentie = past participle of se sentir, agreeing in gender and number with Marie (feminine singular), so it takes an -e.

So:

masculine: Il s’est senti mieux.
feminine: Elle s’est sentie mieux.

Why is there a comma after Après la consultation?

Après la consultation is an adverbial phrase of time placed at the beginning of the sentence.

In French, when you move such a phrase to the front for emphasis or style, it is usually followed by a comma:

Après le dîner, nous sortons.
Le matin, je bois du café.
Hier, j’ai vu Paul.

You could technically omit the comma in some cases, but the comma is standard and clearer, especially in writing.

Is there any liaison or special pronunciation in Marie se sent mieux?

Key pronunciation points:

Marie: [ma-REE]
se: [sə] (like a very short “suh”)
sent: [sɑ̃] (nasal vowel, no pronounced t)
mieux: [mjø] (one syllable, roughly like “myuh”)

Liaisons:

There is no obligatory liaison between se and sent: it’s pronounced [sə sɑ̃].
There is no liaison between sent and mieux either.

So the whole sentence is pronounced approximately:

[apʁɛ la kɔ̃syltaˈsjɔ̃, maˈʁi sə sɑ̃ mjø].

Could we say Après la consultation, Marie se sent bien instead of mieux?

Yes, but the meaning changes slightly:

se sentir bien = to feel good / well (normal, OK).
se sentir mieux = to feel better (improved compared to before).

So:

Marie se sent bien. – Marie feels well (no comparison).
Marie se sent mieux. – Marie feels better than she did earlier.

In this context (after a consultation), mieux is more natural because it implies an improvement.

What would change if I replaced Après la consultation with Après que and a clause?

With après, you can use:

a noun phrase:
- Après la consultation, Marie se sent mieux.
a clause with après que:
- Après que la consultation est terminée, Marie se sent mieux.
  = After the consultation is finished, Marie feels better.

Notes:

Après que is followed by a full clause (subject + verb).
In standard French grammar, après que is followed by the indicative (e.g. est terminée, s’est terminée), not the subjunctive.
In spoken French, people often simplify and just keep the more compact Après la consultation… form.