Learn Hardcore French: Elle sourit et dit doucement : « J’ai de la peine, mais je garde espoir malgré tous ces soucis. » - She smiles and says softly, “I am sad, but I keep hope despite all these worries.”

J’ai de la peine ≈ I’m sad, I’m hurting, often with a nuance of emotional pain, sorrow or heartache (it can suggest something a bit deeper than just being in a bad mood).
Je suis triste is the straightforward I am sad.

So they overlap a lot. Avoir de la peine can sound a bit more emotional or tender, and you’ll also see it especially in Swiss or Canadian French with this meaning.

Note: in another structure, avoir de la peine à faire quelque chose means to have trouble doing something, which is a different use.

Why is it de la peine and not something like des peines or just peine?

De la here is a partitive article, used for an indefinite amount of something that’s not being counted.

de la peine = some sadness / some sorrow (an unspecified quantity of an abstract thing)
des peines would sound like several pains/sorrows, counting separate “pains”, which is not what the sentence is doing.
Just peine alone (J’ai peine) doesn’t work in standard French in this sense.

So de la peine is the normal, idiomatic way to talk about an undefined “amount” of emotional pain.

Why does it say je garde espoir without an article? Why not je garde l’espoir or j’ai de l’espoir?

Garder espoir is a fixed expression meaning to keep (one’s) hope, to keep hoping.

je garde espoir ≈ I’m keeping hope, I’m still hopeful.
You’ll often see similar patterns without an article with abstract nouns:
garder espoir, perdre espoir, reprendre courage, garder patience, etc.

Alternatives:

Je garde l’espoir is possible but sounds heavier and more specific, like I’m keeping *the hope (alive)*, maybe in a particular situation.
J’ai de l’espoir = I have (some) hope. Grammatically fine, but the idiomatic collocation in this emotional context is really garder espoir.

How is malgré used grammatically in malgré tous ces soucis? Can you say malgré que or malgré de?

Malgré is a preposition that means despite / in spite of and it is followed directly by a noun or pronoun, with no extra preposition:

malgré tous ces soucis – despite all these worries
malgré la pluie – despite the rain
malgré lui / elle – despite himself / herself

You do not say:

✗ malgré de tous ces soucis
✗ malgré que + clause in standard usage

If you want a full clause after it, you usually change structure:

bien que j’aie tous ces soucis – even though I have all these worries
malgré le fait que j’aie tous ces soucis – despite the fact that I have all these worries

In tous ces soucis, why is it tous and not toutes?

Because souci is a masculine noun:

un souci – a worry, a concern
des soucis – worries

So:

masculine plural tous
- masculine plural noun → tous ces soucis
if the noun were feminine plural, you’d use toutes (e.g. toutes ces questions).

What nuance does souci have compared to problème? Could you just say problèmes?

Both are possible, but they don’t feel exactly the same:

un souci / des soucis
Often smaller, more personal worries, preoccupations, things that weigh on your mind. It can sound a bit more emotional or intimate.
un problème / des problèmes
More general problems, which can be practical, technical, etc. It can sound a bit more objective or concrete.

In this sentence, soucis fits well because she’s talking about worries and emotional burdens, not just practical issues.
You could say malgré tous ces problèmes, and it would still be correct, but the nuance is slightly less “inner worry” and more “problems” in general.

What exactly does doucement mean here? Does it mean she speaks slowly or quietly?

Doucement is an adverb that can mean softly, gently, quietly, slowly, depending on context.

In elle … dit doucement, the most natural reading is:

she says (it) softly / gently, i.e. in a soft, quiet, tender tone.

It’s more about how she says it (tone and gentleness) than about the speed of speaking, although sometimes it can also imply a slower, calmer way of speaking.

Where can doucement go in the sentence? Could I say Elle sourit et doucement dit?

In modern French, doucement is most natural:

after the verb: Elle … dit doucement.
or at the very end: Elle sourit et dit : « … » doucement. (still possible, but can sound a bit clumsy in writing)

Elle sourit et doucement dit sounds old‑fashioned or poetic at best, and usually just wrong in everyday French.

So for neutral style, keep: Elle sourit et dit doucement : …

Why are sourit and dit in the present tense? Would Elle a souri et a dit be more natural in a story?

Both are possible; they just belong to different narrative styles.

Elle sourit et dit…
This is the présent de narration (narrative present). It’s often used in stories to make the action feel vivid and immediate, as if it’s happening now.
Elle a souri et a dit…
This is passé composé, a normal past tense: She smiled and said… It’s also very common in narratives.

So Elle sourit et dit doucement… does not mean she usually smiles and says here; it’s a stylistic choice to make the scene feel more “in the moment.”

Are there any tricky pronunciation points in Elle sourit et dit doucement : « J’ai de la peine, mais je garde espoir malgré tous ces soucis. »?

A few key points:

sourit → /suʀi/
Final -t is silent.
dit → /di/
Final -t is also silent.
doucement → roughly /dus(ə)mɑ̃/
The -ent at the end is nasal -an sound /ɑ̃/, not pronounced “ent”.
J’ai → /ʒe/
One syllable; the J’ is joined to ai.
malgré → /malɡʀe/
Stress on the last syllable -gré.
tous ces soucis in this context:
tous is usually pronounced /tu/ (no final /s/ sound) before a noun: /tu se susi/.

So you do not pronounce the final consonants of sourit, dit, tous in this sentence.

Why is there a space before the colon and the French quotation marks « »?

That’s normal French punctuation:

In traditional French typography, certain punctuation marks (; : ? !) take a space before and after. In modern practice it’s often a thin space, but you still see a space:
dit doucement : « … »
French often uses guillemets (« ») instead of English quotation marks. Inside them, there’s usually a space before the text:
« J’ai de la peine… »

So the spacing you see is standard French typesetting, not a mistake. In more informal digital writing, people sometimes skip the space before : or use English quotes, but what you see here is the “correct” traditional style.

Why is it written J’ai and not Je ai?

Because of elision:

je ends in a vowel, and ai (from avoir) starts with a vowel.
In French, when je comes before a word starting with a vowel or silent h, it usually drops the e and takes an apostrophe: j’.

So:

✗ Je ai
✓ J’ai

This happens with many other verbs too: j’aime, j’écoute, j’habite, etc.