Breakdown of Le soir, j’écris une phrase sur mon humeur à la fin de chaque page de mon journal intime.
Questions & Answers about Le soir, j’écris une phrase sur mon humeur à la fin de chaque page de mon journal intime.
Le soir here means “in the evening / at night (in general)” and expresses a habitual action.
- Le soir = in the evenings (general habit), e.g. Le soir, je lis. = I read in the evening.
- Chaque soir = every single evening, with a bit more insistence on every.
- Les soirs is possible but less common in this type of sentence; it can sound a bit heavier or more specific (like a series of particular evenings).
So Le soir, j’écris… is the most natural way to say “In the evenings, I write…” as a regular habit.
When you put a time expression at the beginning of a French sentence, it is usually followed by a comma:
- Le matin, je bois du café.
- Le soir, j’écris…
It separates the introductory time phrase (Le soir) from the main clause (j’écris une phrase…). It’s mostly a punctuation convention and doesn’t change the meaning.
In French, the present tense often expresses:
- a habitual action (what you do regularly),
- a general truth, or
- something happening right now.
In this sentence, j’écris une phrase… means “I (normally / usually) write a sentence…” — it’s describing a habit, not a one‑time action.
English often uses I write or I usually write for this; French simply uses the present j’écris.
- une phrase = a sentence, one sentence, not specified which one.
- la phrase = the sentence, a specific sentence already known from context.
- des phrases = some sentences / several sentences.
Here the speaker says that each evening they write one sentence about their mood, so une phrase (indefinite, singular) is the natural choice:
- J’écris une phrase… = I write a (single) sentence…
In this context sur means “about / on the subject of”, very much like English about:
- un livre sur l’histoire de France = a book about the history of France
- une phrase sur mon humeur = a sentence about my mood
You could say une phrase à propos de mon humeur or une phrase au sujet de mon humeur, but those are longer and more formal.
Using de (une phrase de mon humeur) would be wrong here; de would suggest origin or possession, not the topic. For topics, sur is the usual, natural preposition.
humeur means mood, and it is feminine in French:
- mon humeur (because mon is used before any feminine noun starting with a vowel sound)
- une humeur, la bonne humeur, la mauvaise humeur
Common expressions:
- être de bonne humeur = to be in a good mood
- être de mauvaise humeur = to be in a bad mood
So une phrase sur mon humeur = a sentence about my mood.
In this sentence:
- à la fin de chaque page = at the end of each page (spatial location on the page)
Some contrasts:
à la fin de
- spatial or temporal end of something
- à la fin du film = at the end of the film
- à la fin de chaque page = at the bottom/end of each page
en fin de
- more like towards the end of / in the final part of
- en fin de journée = towards the end of the day
- less used for pages in a diary like this.
au bout de
- time: after (a duration) → au bout de deux heures = after two hours
- space: at the far end of → au bout de la rue = at the end of the street
So à la fin de chaque page is the precise and natural way to say “at the end of each page.”
Both are grammatically correct, but the nuance is different:
- chaque page = each page, looking at them one by one
- à la fin de chaque page = at the end of each page (I do it on every page individually)
- toutes les pages = all the pages, focusing more on the group as a whole
- à la fin de toutes les pages would sound odd here, as if the “end” of all the pages was one place.
For repeated actions on individual items, chaque + singular is the normal pattern, just like English each page.
In French, journal is masculine:
- un journal, le journal, mon journal
That’s why you must use mon, not ma, even though the English word diary is not gendered.
Remember that French gender depends on the French word, not on its translation:
- un journal (masculine) = a diary / a newspaper
- une page (feminine) = a page
- → mon journal intime, ma page
journal on its own most commonly means newspaper:
- Je lis le journal. = I read the newspaper.
It can also mean journal / log / diary, depending on context:
- un journal de bord = a logbook
- mon journal can mean my diary if the context is clear.
journal intime is much more precise and almost always means personal diary or private journal.
So mon journal intime clearly means my personal diary, not a newspaper.
Yes, that word order is grammatically correct:
- Le soir, j’écris une phrase sur mon humeur à la fin de chaque page…
- Le soir, j’écris à la fin de chaque page une phrase sur mon humeur…
Both are possible. The original version sounds a bit more neutral and natural, because:
- j’écris une phrase sur mon humeur is kept together as one unit,
- then you add où / quand you write it: à la fin de chaque page.
Reordering is allowed in French, but changing the order can slightly change what is emphasized. Here, the first version is the most typical.
Yes, a few useful ones:
- Le soir: the r is pronounced; soir sounds like swahr.
- j’écris: the s is silent; sounds like jé-kree.
- humeur: initial h is silent, so it starts with a vowel sound: u-meur (like ü-mœr).
- mon humeur: no liaison (you don’t say mon‑numeur), but it flows as one group.
- chaque page: the final -que in chaque is pronounced k, and page ends with a soft zh sound.
- journal intime:
- journal ends with a pronounced l,
- there is a liaison: journal intime sounds like journal‑z‑intime.
Saying the sentence slowly out loud and then more quickly will help you get the rhythm and these liaisons right.